Shadows of the Evening

In a suite in a luxury hotel in Switzerland, Linda Savignac receives a visit from Anne Hilgar. They were once close friends, until Anne's husband, George, left her for Linda, seven years ago. Anne has come from London at Linda's request to discuss George's health. During a routine examination, inoperable and terminal cancer has been detected. Linda explains that George has not been told, and she wants to discuss which of them ought to break the news to him. At first their conversation is stiff, but they become more relaxed as they recall episodes from the days of their friendship. As they are laughing about one of them, George arrives and is taken aback to find his estranged wife and current partner in amicable conversation. His first thought is that one of his and Anne's children must be ill, but she reassures him, and passes off her visit as "a little jaunt".

George, who has made his doctor tell him the truth about his condition, realises that Anne and Linda have been discussing which of them is to tell him he is dying, and he tells them that he already knew. Linda, in tears, retreats to the bedroom, leaving George and Anne together. He asks if she was still in love with him when he left her; she says she was not, but cared for him deeply and misses him greatly. He says he wants to come back to her for the last months of his life.^[12]

In the second scene, later the same day, George and Linda are in evening dress, preparing to take the boat to Evian to gamble at the casino. He outlines his plans for the short time he has left: a fortnight with her in Capri, back to London to put his financial and other affairs in order, and then return to the family house with Anne. Linda is distressed at the thought of his returning to Anne, but he tells her that he loves them both in different ways. She says that the last seven years, spent with him, have been the happiest of her life, and that she will always be grateful to him. Anne arrives. The three drink champagne together. Anne suggests that she should go back to London straight away, but Linda urges her to stay. George tells them both that he intends to go on being positive about life until "that last bewildering second" before death. The sound of the hooter of the Evian steamer is heard and the three go out together to catch it.^[13]

The Observer commented that the play and its two companions represented Coward's best writing since the Second World War.^[14] In The Guardian, Philip Hope-Wallace, who praised the other half of the double bill, was not taken with Shadows of the Evening, "a rather bland, trite, storyless sketch".^[15] J. C. Trewin in The Illustrated London News commented on the "grave sincerity" of the writing, and found the piece "unaffectedly moving".^[16] The Times called the two plays of the double bill "vigorous restatements of Mr Coward's values – loyalty, emotional honesty and stoicism in the face of the inevitable", but thought they were better addressed in Come into the Garden, Maud than in Shadows of the Evening, in which "strongly felt lines" were outweighed by "homilies".^[17]

• Coward, Noël (1994). Plays, Five. Sheridan Morley (introduction). London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-51740-1.
• Day, Barry, ed. (2007). The Letters of Noël Coward. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-1-4081-0675-4.
• Hoare, Philip (1995). Noël Coward, A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1-4081-0675-4.
• Lahr, John (1982). Coward the Playwright. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-48050-7.
• Mander, Raymond; Mitchenson, Joe; Barry Day; Sheridan Morley (2000) [1957]. Theatrical Companion to Coward (second ed.). London: Oberon. ISBN 978-1-84002-054-0.
• Morley, Sheridan (1974) [1969]. A Talent to Amuse. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-003863-7.