Tonight at 8.30: Ten One-Act Plays Book

A truly mixed bag and a tad dated in parts. That being said it does show remarkable range and ambition on Coward's part. A man of many talents, Coward grew restive in a long run. After about three months he was bored to catalepsy with any show he was appearing in - even those he wrote. So to stave off boredom he devised the notion of writing 9 one acts which were to be performed as three seperate evenings of three plays each. A daring scheme to be sure. To watch Coward and the enchanting Gertrude Lawrence lock horns in the domestic melodrama of "Fumed Oak" and then torture each other in the sophisticated tear jerker "The Astonished Heart" and then proceed to prance about in the music hall spoof "The Red Peppers" must have been sheer Heaven. Unfortunately on the page the plays don't always take you there. Of course plays are made to be performed but aside from the three I already mentioned and "Still Life" none of the other plays warrant reviving today and even in the 30's must have appeared slight to a discerning theatregoer. Still all of the plays have their moments and there is much to love in this collection of one acts.