Peace in Our Time (play)

Peace in Our Time is a two-act play written in 1946 by seminal English creative figure Noël Coward. As originally envisioned, the piece has eight scenes and a cast of twenty-two speaking roles. It focuses on a small group of Londoners in a pub close to Sloane Square, the characters living in a dark, stressed situation in which Nazi Germany won the Battle of Britain and successfully invaded and occupied the United Kingdom. Although fiction, the work takes direct inspiration from the real-life sufferings of French citizens under fascist occupation that Coward had followed closely.

The work of alternate history received its first performance at the Lyric Theatre in London in 1947. The production was directed by Alan Webb under Coward's supervision; it starred notable performers such as Helen Horsey, Kenneth More, Bernard Lee, Elspeth March, and Maureen Pryor. Later during that same year, the play moved to the Aldwych Theatre, also in London, under the continued direction of Alan Webb. The core protagonists of the play included Bernard Lee (Fred Shattock), Kenneth More (George Bourne), Dora Bryan (Phyllis Mere), and Dandy Nicols (Lily Blake).

The piece is unusual for its heavy tone, being considerably darker than the comedic approach featured in most of Coward's plays. Although considered somewhat lost in the shuffle in comparison to other dramas over the past several decades, Peace in Our Time picked up some interest after the turn of the century, being performed in areas such as the U.S. state of Texas to critical acclaim.

Coward felt inspired to write the play after seeing the dramatic effects of the occupation of France by Nazi forces as well as pondering over the occupation's several years later. Thinking over what had happened to the people of Paris, he wrote that "[t]he idea of Peace in Our Time was conceived in Paris shortly after the Liberation". He author remarked, "I began to suspect that the physical effect of four years intermittent bombing is far less damaging to the intrinsic character of a nation than the spiritual effect of four years enemy occupation".

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