Peace in Our Time (play)

It is a work of alternative history, focusing on a group of Londoners in a pub close to Sloane Square, after Nazi Germany has won the Battle of Britain and successfully invaded and occupied the United Kingdom.

The work takes inspiration from the real-life sufferings of French citizens during the German occupation of France, which Coward had followed closely.

The production was directed by Alan Webb under Coward's supervision; it starred performers who became well known including Kenneth More, Bernard Lee, Elspeth March, and Maureen Pryor.

The piece is unusual for its sombre tone, being considerably darker than the comedic approach of most of Coward's plays.

Coward wrote that he conceived the idea for the play while in Paris shortly after the Liberation and end of Nazi occupation.

It didn't take me long however to realise that, behind the facade, a great deal had changed; the sense of immediate relief had faded, and there was an atmosphere of subtle disintegration, lassitude and above all suspicion".

[4] The play takes its title from a popular misquotation: the pre-war British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain proclaimed after meeting Adolf Hitler at the Munich Conference of 1938, "I believe it is peace for our time".

[5][n 1] Coward was advised not to use the phrase for his title, but as his biographer Cole Lesley put it, "Of course he used it, only too delighted to do anything which might anger the pro-Munich lot".

Coward wanted a cast of fresh new talent, and auditioned numerous rising actors including Kenneth More, who accepted a part, and Dirk Bogarde, who did not.

The setting is the saloon bar of a London public house called The Shy Gazelle, somewhere between Knightsbridge and Sloane Square.

The latter are in general ordinary British people, resentful of German occupation but, to varying degrees, resigned to it.

News of events in Britain, on the radio and reported by customers, include the shooting of Winston Churchill, the State Opening of Parliament by Hitler, an attack on a German officer near the pub and the arrest of a local Jewish tailor by the SS.

The regulars and the Shattocks escape through the back door while the radio is heard announcing that the liberation is nearly complete.

[8] In the assessment of Coward's biographer Sheridan Morley, the writer had uncharacteristically misjudged his moment: A 2014 article in the magazine Houstonia after the Houston revival detailed below, judged that the play explored interesting dramatic questions while still maintaining a close feeling of realism, such as how frustratingly "characters grumble about the indignity of foreign occupation, including food and drink rationing".