Noel Coward's TONIGHT AT 8.30 at the Oxford Playhouse

Tonight at 8.30 is a set of nine, one act plays written by Noel Coward in the latter half of the 1930's. Every time I see one of English Touring Theatre's productions, I am always impressed. Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing  and Ibsen's Ghosts were both tremendous. These short plays are presented, as originally intended, in batches of three.

My evening started with Ways and Means. A light comedy about a bickering married couple, living the high life beyond their means and down on their luck, all of their own making. About to be ejected from the home of friends on French Riviera, things go from bad to worse before a savior makes an appearance. For me, I thought the dialogue was spoken far too fast and missed some of the Coward trademark laughs. I went on YouTube where the whole play is available and found how much more satisfying was the time taken to let the comedy sparkle. That is not to say last night's performance was disappointing. In fact the last fifteen minutes was superb.

More bickering in the second and shortest play Fumed Oak. This time the quiet husband has to listen while wife, daughter and mother in law argue the whole time. But it's not long before he turns the tables. Again the ending works really well.

After the interval we are treated to Still Life. It takes place over a number of weeks at the buffet of a railway station. (The sets are wonderfully adapted so they each bring their own different atmosphere to the proceedings). A doctor is waiting for his train when a married woman comes in with some grit in her eye. He manages to remove it and so begins a guilt ridden affair. Each time we meet them on a Thursday the relationship is different. Each has a family and although in love, we know they can never be together. In the background, the frivolous friendship of two couples (all single) working at the station is a nice counterpoint to the intensity of the main story. Noel Coward used this as the basis of his screenplay for the film Brief Encounter with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson and directed by David Lean.

Unusually, there is quite a large cast of nine actors. They are all pretty good. Direction is by the award winning Blanche McIntyre. She manages to bring a real sense of the 30's to plays that are fairly dated. Not as funny as I had hoped, but the contrasts of class through the three plays is quite poignant. And, well, it's Noel Coward.