Coward Plays: 7

The Seventh volume in the Coward Collection. On Quadrille: "e;Miss Fontanne plays the madcap Marchioness with thecrackle and sheen of a five-pound note. Her eyes mock marvelously, hervoice cuts like a knife into a wedding cake, and the scene in ActThree, on the eve of her elopement with Mr. Lung, is as delicious ascrushed ice."e; Evening Standard, 1952. "e;The idea of Peace in Our Time"e;,Coward wrote "e;was conceived in Paris shortly after the Liberation. . .I began to suspect that the physical effect of four years intermittentbombing is far less damaging to the intrinsic character of a nationthan the spiritual effect of four years enemy occupation."e;Thevolume also contains four pieces from the Tonight at 8.30 sequence: WeWere Dancing "e;provides a marvelously compact illustration of the waythe English public school spirit prevails even in moments of strenuouspassion."e; "e;Shadow Play is a musical fantasy. . . which gave Gertie andme a chance to sing as romantically as we could, dance in the moonlightand, we hoped, convince the audience that we were very fascinatingindeed"e;; and "e;Family Album - a sly satire on Victorian hypocrisy,adorned with an unobtrusive but agreeable musical score. It wasstylised both in its decor and its performance, was a joy to play andprovided the whole talented company with good parts."e; Star Chamber,closely based on Coward's experiences trying to co-ordinate his Actors'Orphanage charity committee, is published here for the first time.