Noel Coward - A Song at Twilight

Old friends Lynette and David, asked us to take the place of  other friends  who live in Amersham, in seats for Noel Coward's play titled as above at the Orange Tree Theatre Richmond. Their Amersham friends were at the last minute, unable to come.

The train journey from Raynes Park to Richmond   took barely  half an hour and Richmond Station is just 400 yards from the Theatre. We met there and took our seats in the middle of the second row from the front, almost next to the stage.

The actors were terrific but the fourth actor who played the butler as well as live music during the interval is not depicted below:

The programme outlines much of the play very well, stating:

Hugo LatymerStephen Boxer) is on of the world's most famous writers, living in a Swiss hotel with his German wife Hilde (Emma Fielding). But tonight is unexpectedly visited by an old flame. Actress Carlotta (Tara Fitzgerald) is playing a dangerous game of blackmail and as the sun sets over Lake Geneva the ghosts of the past return to haunt Hugo's carefully curated peace and quiet.

A Song at Twilight is among Coward's finest works: a finely wrought drama about secrets and lies."

Not  single expletive was uttered througout the riveting peformance; although there was much shouting  gesticulating and crying. The language used was powerful, requiring  members of the audience to be able to concentrate.

The plot involved Hugo's supposedly hidden, homosexual love for a deceased old friend, his letters not only to his old flame but also  those to his male lover at a time when the latter such love was outlawed. 

Carlotta's visit was intended to involve blackmailing Hugo about correspondence with his since deceased  male friend,  some of which correspondence had come into her hands. There were plot and subplots about this, one including a professor from Havard who was proposing to write a bigography about Hugo for which the letters would apparently be most useful.

The shouting and blackmail attempts eventully ended unexpectedly, after much alcohol between the screaming and tears.

An excellent and quite unplanned,  afternoon out with friends.