We Were Dancing

We Were Dancing is a short comic play in two scenes by Noël Coward. It concerns a married woman who falls in love with another man at a dance on a south Pacific island. They plan to go to Australia, but in the cold light of morning, they realise that they have nothing in common.

It is one of ten short plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed in alternating groups of three plays across three evenings. In the introduction to a published edition of the plays, Coward explained that the cycle was an attempt to revive the popularity of short plays: "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." Four of the plays in the cycle, including We Were Dancing, "break into spontaneous song... in the most unexpected places".We Were Dancing includes a song of the same name.

The piece was first produced in Manchester in 1935 and then played in London (1936), New York (1936–1937) and Canada (1938). The Manchester Guardian described the play as "a witty little piece", and it was later seen as one of the more durable of the Tonight at 8:30 cycle. It has enjoyed several major revivals.

The play was first presented at the Opera House, Manchester, on 15 October 1935, when it was played along with two other plays from Tonight at 8:30, The Astonished Heart and Red Peppers. Six of the plays debuted in Manchester, and a seventh was added on the subsequent provincial tour. The final three were added for 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 9 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre. Coward directed. All ten pieces starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself". The Broadway openings for the three parts took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 (including We Were Dancing) and 30 November 1936 at the National Theatre, again starring Coward and Lawrence. Star Chamber was not included. The London and New York runs were limited only by Coward's boredom at long engagements.

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