Fumed Oak - History

History

Six of the plays in Tonight at 8:30 were first presented at the Opera House, Manchester, beginning on 15 October 1935. Fumed Oak premiered on the third night, 18 October 1935. A seventh play was added on the subsequent provincial tour, and the final three were added for the London run. The first London performance was on 18 January 1936 at the Phoenix Theatre.

Coward directed all ten pieces, and each starred Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. Coward said that he wrote them as "acting, singing, and dancing vehicles for Gertrude Lawrence and myself". The plays were performed in various combinations of three at each performance during the original run. The plays chosen for each performance were announced in advance, although a myth evolved that the groupings were random. Matinées were sometimes billed as Today at 2:30. The title of the play refers to a wood finishing process that treats the oak with ammonia fumes to darken it and emphasize its rough grain; the finish is dull rather than glossy.

The Observer commented in its review, "Mr Coward, as a pale and hairy specimen of suburban revolt throws his supper to the floor and behaves more like Petruchio and looks more like an advertisement for liver pills ... than one could possibly imagine ... he is considerably assisted by Miss Gertrude Lawrence and Miss Alison Leggatt as dowdy shrew and shrew's mama. Miss Moya Nugent, as the dreadful daughter, bravely mutilates her appearance in order to look every inch the adenoid."

The Broadway openings for the three parts took place on 24 November 1936, 27 November 1936 (including Fumed Oak) and 30 November 1936 at the National Theatre, again starring Coward and Lawrence. Star Chamber was not included. The London and New York runs were limited only by Coward's boredom at long engagements.

Major productions of parts of the cycle were revived in 1948 and 1967 on Broadway (including Fumed Oak in 1948 but not in 1967), in 1981 at the Lyric Theatre in London (omitting Fumed Oak) and at the Chichester Festival in 2006 (Shadow Play, Hands Across the Sea, Red Peppers, Family Album, Fumed Oak and The Astonished Heart). In 1971, the Shaw Festival revived three of the plays, and in 2000, the Williamstown Theatre Festival revived six of the plays, but neither revival included Fumed Oak. However, the Antaeus Company in Los Angeles revived all ten plays in October 2007, and the Shaw Festival did so in 2009.

For a 1952 film Meet Me Tonight, directed by Anthony Pelissier, Coward adapted Ways and Means, Red Peppers and Fumed Oak (called Tonight at 8:30 in the U.S.) In 1991, BBC television mounted productions of the individual plays with Joan Collins taking the Lawrence roles. The sheer expense involved in mounting what are effectively ten different productions has usually deterred revivals of the entire Tonight at 8:30 cycle, but the constituent plays can often be seen individually or in sets of three.