Shadow Play (play)

Shadow Play is a short play by Noël Coward, one of ten that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward wrote, "A short play, having a great advantage over a long one in that it can sustain a mood without technical creaking or over padding, deserves a better fate, and if, by careful writing, acting and producing I can do a little towards reinstating it in its rightful pride, I shall have achieved one of my more sentimental ambitions."

The play was first produced in 1935 in Manchester and on tour and played in London (1936), New York (1936–1937) and Canada (1938). It has enjoyed several major revivals and has been adapted for television. At its premières in Manchester and London, Shadow Play was played on the same evening as Fumed Oak and Hands Across the Sea. Like all the other plays in the cycle it originally starred Gertrude Lawrence and Coward himself.

Six of the plays (We Were Dancing, The Astonished Heart, Red Peppers, Hands Across the Sea, Fumed Oak and Shadow Play) were first presented at the Manchester Opera House beginning on 15 October 1935.Shadow Play premiered on the third night, 18 October 1935. A seventh play, Family Album, was added on the subsequent provincial tour. The final three were added during the London run. The plays were performed in various combinations of three at each performance during the original run. The plays chosen for each performance were announced in advance, although a myth evolved that the groupings were random. Matinées were sometimes billed as Today at 2:30.

The first London performance was on 18 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre. Coward directed all ten pieces, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself". Four of the plays in the cycle "break into spontaneous song... in the most unexpected places". Coward's song, "You Were There" is central to the play. The Manchester Guardian called the play "warmed with human feeling", though doubting the durability of the couple's reconciliation.

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