Shadows of the Evening

Suite in Three Keys was planned by Coward as his theatrical swan song: "I would like to act once more before I fold my bedraggled wings.

[4] Coward wrote the three plays in the expectation that Margaret Leighton would be his co-star, but she vacillated for so long about accepting the roles that he cast Lilli Palmer instead.

[5] In each of the plays there are two main female parts, and Coward chose Irene Worth for the second role: "She isn't quite a star but she's a bloody good actress.

"[6][n 1] Shadows of the Evening opened at the Queen's Theatre, London, on 25 April 1966 as the first half of a double-bill with the comedy Come into the Garden, Maud, the other one-act play in the trilogy.

[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.

[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".