It seems clear that the first person writing here knows next to nothing about the provenance of these one-act plays and the second person just a tad more. For the record Noel Coward was not the CO-writer but the actual one and only writer. He wrote Ten one-act plays in 1936 in which he and Gertude Lawrence eventually acted NINE in the theatre at the rate of THREE on Monday, a different THREE on Tuesday, and a final THREE on Wednesday, repeating the pattern on Thursday, Friday and Saturday plus playing SIX more at the two matinees every week, so that in two weeks all NINE plays would be played three times each. For reasons best known to Collins, the Producer and/or the BBC, one of the surviving Nine, We Were Dancing, has been omitted, possibly because Joan didn't feel up to the dancing required. The plays were clearly designed to showcase the versatility of both Coward and Lawrence and on the whole they succeeded admirably. A feature film, Meet Me Tonight, circa 1952, featured three of the playlets and from time to time either three or six at a time have been revived in the theatre but never, so far as I know, the complete nine. Clearly Collins saw the playlets as an excellent vehicle for herself, equally clearly she is not really up to shining in eight different roles though she makes a reasonable stab at it. If she had casting approval she was either playing favourites, paying off debts or else has little talent for casting because the mis-casting verges on the hilarious with John Nettles, John Alderton, John Standing, Simon Williams, and Anthony Newly particularly risible in their lead roles, followed closely by Norman Rossington - completely hopeless in the role Stanley Holloway made his own - Miriam Margoyles totally inept, and so on. What remains, of course, is the quality of the writing, truly the work of a 'Master'.
Review of Tonight at 8.30
