Noël Coward Double Bill

Still Life and The Astonished Heart

“It’s lovely and strange and desperately difficult.”

A respectable middle class couple enjoy a cup of tea in a railway station cafeteria. Beneath the seemingly normal, genteel surface, however, passion and desire mingle with guilt and desperation. Above the whistle of the departing train can be heard the sound of two hearts skipping a beat.  Still Life is the Coward play which inspired David Lean’s classic film Brief Encounter.

“How does it feel to be so desirable – to be wanted so much – tell me, please…”

The Astonished Heart exposes an adulterous affair and lays bare the motives of those involved. Love may be a game for some; all too often, it’s a game that ends in tears.