Cast

Synopsis

..

Directors Notes

“I wanted to write a play about the theatre as I know it, from the inside, and yet in a way understandable to the audience, a way to which I hoped they would warm; the character of Maddoc was partly based on Henry Ainley, partly on two other actors I knew well. The play had an exciting but bumpy two years: produced in London in February 1940, it closed temporarily in June, went on tour, closed again at Streatham Hill Theatre in early September, on the night the London blitz broke out. The play toured for a year and when Godfrey Tearle left the cast, I was prevailed upon to take over his part. Before doing this, I performed on the play a delicate but impudent piece of surgery the like of which I shall never do again: being too young to play Maddoc as written, I made him Cattrin’s brother instead of her father. It made sense to those who did not know the play already, but suited neither me- I was miscast nor the play, which (though it ran in London a further six months, at the Globe) lost considerably in effect. The play was produced in New York in 1942-with Paul Muni, Jessica Tandy and Alfred Drake and was a failure; it was subsequently filmed, with Monty Woolley and Ida Lupino, under the title of ‘Every Night at 8.30’ “.