Russell Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Drama will talk about: Noël Coward writes and rewrites two well-made plays

Hosted by the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts. Russell Jackson, Emeritus Professor of Drama will talk about: Noël Coward writes and rewrites two well-made plays.

On 6 August 1956 Noël Coward wrote in his diary: ‘as long as I continue to write plays to be acted in theatres, I shall strain every fibre to see that they are clear, well constructed and strong in content, either serious or funny, to keep an average paying audience interested from 8.30 until 11.15.’ Although Coward was remarkably fluent – and often rapid – as a writer of dialogue, throughout his career his working habits included a great deal of revision and a constant search for the virtues of the well-made play. Drawing on manuscript and typescript drafts and other unpublished documents, the paper outlines aspects of his craft with specific reference to two plays from the 1950s, a period when he was finding it difficult to hold his own against new developments in the English theatre. These are Quadrille (1952) Nude with Violin (1957).