A Naughty Night with Noël Coward: 'We Were Dancing' and 'The Better Half'

A Naughty Night with Noël Coward looks at the scandalous side of high society with two hilarious one-act plays by Noël Coward: We Were Dancing and The Better Half. Coward’s wicked wit comes alive in this naughty night of extramarital affairs.

We Were Dancing follows Louise, a married woman, and Karl as they fall madly in love at a country club in the South Pacific. They quickly make plans to travel to Australia together but realise shortly afterwards that they have absolutely nothing in common! We Were Dancing was written in 1935 as part of the Tonight at 8:30 cycle of one-act plays.

The Better Half (1921) looks at Alice and David who are stuck in an unhappy marriage when David is on the brink of having an affair. What David doesn't realise is that his wife is trying to encourage the affair because she feels sorry for him. This play was never actually published and was eventually discovered in 2007, 34 years after Coward’s death.