Red Peppers

Described as 'An Interlude with Music', Red Peppers is a one act play, one of the ten plays that make up Tonight at 8:30, a cycle written to be performed across three evenings. It is set in a dressing room in the Palace of Varieties in a small English provincial town.

A faded song and dance, husband and wife double-act, played by Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence, go through their nightly routine of make-up and bickering, largely about their act, their place on the bill and the management of the theatre. This cauldron of 'artistic bliss' is sandwiched between two music-hall numbers played front-of-curtain.

The two comic songs, are pastiches penned by Coward, and provide the 'haven't I heard that somewhere before quality' that adds true authenticity to the song and dance sequences. They are well-known pieces and regularly performed in cabaret, compilations and concerts by other performers but are seen at their best in the 'variety stage' context.

Coward's years of experience touring as a young performer provided a full trunk of of anecdotal experiencethat is put to best possible use by the talents of the two main actors.

The play was first presented in 1935 in Manchester, and on tour, and played in London (1936), New York (1936–1937) and Canada (1938). It has enjoyed several major revivals, and has been adapted for film as one of three plays in Meet Me Tonight made in the UK by Anthony Havelock-Allen Productions in 1952, and numerous times for television. At the London première Red Peppers was played on the same evening as Family Album and The Astonished Heart.