Suite in Three Keys: A Song at Twilight, Shadows of the Evening, Come into the Garden Maud

by Noël Coward

First edition hardcover with some shelf wear. All pages are intact with no tears or markings of any kind.

Genres: Plays

64 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 67

About the author

Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English actor, playwright, and composer of popular music.

Among his achievements, he received an Academy Certificate of Merit at the 1943 Academy Awards for "outstanding production achievement for In Which We Serve."

Known for his wit, flamboyance, and personal style, his plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. The former Albery Theatre (originally the New Theatre) in London was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre in his honour in 2006.

Reviews

[Bettie]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b055jzjh

A Song at Twilight: description: Hugo Latymer's reunion with an old flame proves to be more than nostalgia. Stars Michael Denison, Jill Bennett and Dulcie Gray.

The first of three plays set in a suite in a luxury hotel somewhere in Switzerland.

CR The Diaries
4* Blithe Spirit
5* Private Lives
3* Present Laughter
2* The Vortex
3* Brief Encounter
2* This Happy Breed
3* Nude with Violin
3* Suite in Three Keys

[Rolls]

Noel Coward wrote this trio of plays as his swan song to the stage. Though he was at the end of his glorious career there was still life in the old boy yet. "A Song At Twilight" finds aging writer Felix Laytmer (Coward based him on Somerset Maugham and the action of the play on an incident that happened to Max Beerbohm) confronted by the shadows of the past. It is an elegiac study of how try as we might we can never escape who we really are. "Shadows of the Evening" deals with a man who is dying and the two women who love him. Being a fan of Coward's I knew that when he wrote and performed this he had only a few years left to live himself. As I read George Hilgay's final defiant speech in the face of death I found a lump developing in my throat. Even without this inside information this is stil an affecting piece of writing. Finally, "Come Into the Garden Maud" is slight but charming frolic that finds Coward even in his final days believeing firmly in the transforming and transfixing powers of love. Vintage Coward.

[Ann]

Three plays by the master of drawing room wit, Noel Coward.
Hardbound
The plays are:
A Song at Twilight
Shadows of the Evening
Come into the Garden Maud
The London Daily Express called the first "a drama of profound depth and significance" and claimed the second two are "Coward at his zenith." All are set in a luxury hotel suite in Lausanne, Switzerland. Each has three principle characters, a man and two women, bit the themes vary widely.

Merged review:

Three plays from the late 1960s by Noel Coward

Now Out of Print.

"A Song at Twilight"
Grand old man of English letters revealed as a homosexual.

"Shadows of the Evening"
A successful publisher discovers he has only a few months to live.
and

"Come Into the Garden Maud"
A funny farcical romp in the manner of "The Importance of Being Earnest."

[Michael P.]

This play has its heart in the right place but the carpentry shows and the ending is obvious. A minor work.

[Michelle Dodd (Creaney)]

Listened. BBC Sounds.