''The Better Half'' is a

one-act play A one-act play is a play that has only one act, as distinct from plays that occur over several acts. One-act plays may consist of one or more scenes. The 20-40 minute play has emerged as a popular subgenre of the one-act play, especially in wri ...

by Noël Coward first performed in 1922 by the Grand Guignol theatre company, directed by

Lewis Casson Sir Lewis Thomas Casson MC (26 October 187516 May 1969) was an English actor and theatre director, and the husband of actress Dame Sybil Thorndike.Devlin, DianaCasson, Sir Lewis Thomas (1875–1969) ''The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography ...

. It was thought to be lost until the original script was found in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

in 2007.

Original production

The play was given as the final item of a quintuple bill of mixed comedy and melodrama at the Little Theatre, London on 31 May 1922, with the following cast: *Alice –

Auriol Lee Auriol Lee (13 September 1880 – 2 July 1941) was a popular British stage actress who became a successful West End and Broadway theatrical producer and director. Biography She was born in Maddox Street in the London district of St George's Han ...

*Marion – Ivy Williams *The Husband – Ian Fleming Coward recalled that the piece "was wittily played by Auriol Lee", but:

Plot

Alice has fallen out of love with her high-minded but bloodless husband, David. She discusses him with her friend Marion. It emerges that Marion finds him extremely attractive but her attempt to seduce him was unsuccessful. She leaves angrily when Alice declares that he is in love only with himself. David enters. Alice tries to provoke him by saying that she has been unfaithful to him, but he forgives her. She finally manages to enrage him by mocking his high-mindedness as a pose. The ensuing confrontation is halted by Marion's return. Alice then announces that since David and Marion have a similar outlook and are obviously made for each other, she is quite ready to relinquish him. To satisfy the divorce laws, she will take a lover and "live in flaming sin" at a de luxe hotel. She goes out, leaving the other two nonplussed. David tells Marion, "We should all try to make ourselves see things from every point of view".

History

The Stage ''The Stage'' is a British weekly newspaper and website covering the entertainment industry and particularly theatre. It was founded in 1880. It contains news, reviews, opinion, features, and recruitment advertising, mainly directed at those wh ...

'' judged the piece "exceedingly well written, but too literary". The text was not published and was thought to be lost until Richard Hand and Mike Wilson, researching for a book about Grand Guignol, discovered the script in the

in September 2007, where it had been deposited as part of the Lord Chamberlain's Plays collection."'Lost' Noel Coward play recovered"
BBC. Retrieved 6 August 2021 The Sticking Place theatre company revived the play at the Union Theatre in Southwark, London, in a production that opened on 16 October 2007. An adaptation of the play was broadcast on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

on 25 May 2009, starring Federay Holmes,

Samuel West Samuel Alexander Joseph West (born 19 June 1966) is an English actor, narrator and theatre director. He has directed on stage and radio, and worked as an actor across theatre, film, television and radio. He often appears as reciter with orche ...

and

Lisa Dillon Lisa Dillon (née Stawiarski; born 1979) is an English actress. Life and career Early life Dillon attended Bournemouth School for Girls and left in 1997. She began a degree in English Literature and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of Londo ...

, and directed by Martin Jarvis."Noel Coward: The Better Half"
BBC Genome. Retrieved 6 August 2021

References

Sources

* *

External links

Coward's Women
- Woman's Hour

- The Guardian {{DEFAULTSORT:Better Half, The 1922 plays Plays by Noël Coward One-act plays