''While the Sun Shines'' is a

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...

by the British writer

Terence Rattigan Sir Terence Mervyn Rattigan (10 June 191130 November 1977) was a British dramatist and screenwriter. He was one of England's most popular mid-20th-century dramatists. His plays are typically set in an upper-middle-class background.Geoffrey Wan ...

which was first staged in 1943. It was a popular success, running for 1,154 performances, even more than Rattigan's previous hit ''

French Without Tears ''French Without Tears'' is a comic play written by a 25-year-old Terence Rattigan in 1936. Setting It takes place in a cram school for adults needing to acquire French for business reasons. Scattered throughout are Franglais phrases and sch ...

'', and proved his longest running West End play. A

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

production followed in 1944, though it ran for only 39 performances.

Synopsis

The action takes place over three acts in an apartment at Albany where the wealthy Earl of Harpenden, serving in wartime as an ordinary seaman, is about to marry his long-standing fiancée. Complications are caused by the arrival of two rival suitors an American airman and a

Free French Free France (french: France Libre) was a political entity that claimed to be the legitimate government of France following the dissolution of the Third Republic. Led by French general , Free France was established as a government-in-exile ...

officer, Harpenden's prospective father-in-law and an old girlfriend.

Original cast

The cast of the Globe Theatre production included

Douglas Jefferies Douglas Jefferies (1884–1959) was a British stage and film actor. Selected filmography * '' A Safe Affair'' (1931) - Henry * '' Channel Crossing'' (1933) - Dr. Walkley * '' What Happened to Harkness?'' (1934) - (uncredited) * ''The Cardinal'' ...

, Robert Long, Hugh McDermott,

Jane Baxter Jane Baxter (9 September 1909 – 13 September 1996) was a British actress. Her stage career spanned half a century, and she appeared in a number of films and in television. Early life Baxter was born as Feodora Kathleen Alice Forde in Bremen, ...

Ronald Squire Ronald Launcelot Squire (25 March 1886 – 16 November 1958) was an English character actor. Biography Born in Tiverton, Devon, England, the son of an army officer, Lt.-Col. Frederick Squirl and his Irish-born wife Mary (Ronald's surname 'Sq ...

Eugene Deckers Eugene Francis Deckers (22 October 1917, in Antwerp – 1977, in Paris, France) was a Belgian actor. Career After establishing himself on the British stage, Deckers made his first English language film appearance in 1946. Formerly a romantic l ...

and

Brenda Bruce Brenda Bruce OBE (7 July 1919Some sources cite 17 July 1919. – 19 February 1996) was an English actress. She was focused on the theatre, radio, film and television. Career Bruce was born in Prestwich, Lancashire in 1919, and started her ...

Critical reception

James Agate James Evershed Agate (9 September 1877 – 6 June 1947) was an English diarist and theatre critic between the two world wars. He took up journalism in his late twenties and was on the staff of ''The Manchester Guardian'' in 1907–1914. He later ...

thought it “delightful, a little masterpiece of tingling impertinence”. and on Broadway, the '' New York Herald Tribune'' found "A gay drawing-room comedy has come romping to the rescue of the faltering season."

Adaptation

In 1947 the play was turned into a film of the same title directed by

Anthony Asquith Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...

, a frequent collaborator with Rattigan on various film projects.

References

Bibliography

* John Russell Taylor. ''The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play''. Routledge, 2013.

External links

* 1943 plays British plays adapted into films Plays set in London Plays by Terence Rattigan West End plays {{1940s-play-stub