''Punch without Judy'' is a 1939

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endi ...

by the British author

Max Catto Maxwell Jeffrey Catto (29 July 1907 – 12 March 1992) was born Mark Finkell in Manchester, England and was an English playwright and novelist. Writing career Catto wrote adventure novels and dramas for more than four decades and also wrote under ...

. After its première at the

Q Theatre The Q Theatre was a British theatre located near Kew Bridge in Brentford, west London, which operated between 1924 and 1958. It was built on the site of the former Kew Bridge Studios. The theatre, seating 490 in 25 rows with a central aisle, wa ...

Kew Bridge Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway (upper estuary of the Thames) linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Q ...

, London, it transferred to New Theatre in the West End where it ran for 33 performances between 5 December and 30 December 1939. The West End cast included Peter Murray Hill, Henry Kendall,

Ernest Jay Ernest Jay (18 September 1893 – 8 February 1957) was a British actor. Selected filmography * '' My Lucky Star'' (1933) - Press Agent * ''Tiger Bay'' (1934) - Alf * '' The Iron Duke'' (1934) - First Orderly * '' The Phantom Light'' (1935) ...

Basil Langton Basil Cedric Langton (9 January 1912 – 29 May 2003) was an English actor, director and photographer, who made a career on both sides of the Atlantic. He was an authority on the plays of George Bernard Shaw and compiled an archive of more than ...

Marjorie Rhodes Marjorie Rhodes (9 April 1897 – 4 July 1979) was a British actress. She was born Millicent Wise in Kingston upon Hull, Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire. Career One of her better-known roles was as Lucy Fitton, the mother in Bill Naughton's pl ...

, Elizabeth Allan and

Olga Edwardes Olga Edwardes (born Olga Florence Solomon; 20 May 1915 – 23 July 2008) was an English actress. Personal life Edwardes father was Joseph Michael Solomon, an architect of Herbert Baker, but he committed suicide in 1920 at the age of 33 in Cape ...

. The plot was revolved around romance between

students A student is a person enrolled in a school or other educational institution, or more generally, a person who takes a special interest in a subject. In the United Kingdom and most commonwealth countries, a "student" attends a secondary school ...

living

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

. The same year the author's successful thriller '' They Walk Alone'' had also appeared in the West End.

Phyllis Calvert Phyllis Hannah Murray-Hill (née Bickle; 18 February 1915 – 8 October 2002), known professionally as Phyllis Calvert, was an English film, stage and television actress. She was one of the leading stars of the Gainsborough melodramas of the 1 ...

appeared at Q Theatre in the role subsequently played by Elizabeth Allan in the West End. Calvert met her future husband, co-star Peter Murray Hill, during the production and was spotted by

Gainsborough Pictures Gainsborough Pictures was a British film studio based on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in the former Metropolitan Borough of Shoreditch, east London. Gainsborough Studios was active between 1924 and 1951. The co ...

who signed her to a contract.James p.321

References

Bibliography

* James, Godfrey. ''London, the Western Reaches''. Hale, 1950. * Wearing, J. P. ''The London Stage 1930–1939: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. 1939 plays West End plays British plays Plays by Max Catto Comedy plays Plays set in London {{1930s-play-stub