Music at Night is a play by J. B. Priestley. Although written in 1938 for the Malvern Drama Festival, and performed there on 2 August, the outbreak of World War II meant that its performance in London at the Westminster Theatre was delayed until 10 October 1939; it was the first play to be performed in London after restrictions were lifted. It was published in 1944.
Plot introduction An assortment of middle- and upper-class people come to the house of the widowed Mrs Amesbury to hear a new violin concerto by David Shiel. As the music plays their minds wander, and their reveries are theatrically performed. Each act of the play corresponds with a movement of the concerto: Allegro capriccioso, Lento, and Allegro — agitato — maestoso nobile.
Characters David Shiel, a composer Nicholas Lengel, first violin, a refugee Mrs Amesbury, a wealthy sponsor Katherine Shiel, David's wife Peter Horlett, a Communist poet Ann Winter, a childhood friend and fan of Peter Philip Chilham, a columnist for the Daily Gazette Lady Sybil Linchester, a tactless wit from a rich family Sir James Dirnie, her husband, an aspiring patron of the arts Charles Bendrex, a Cabinet minister Parks, an elderly manservant Rupert Amesbury, a pilot, the deceased son of Mrs Amesbury Mrs Chilham, Philip's mother Tom, a former coworker whom Sir James betrayed Deborah, Sybil's elder sister Dr Ebenthal, David's former teacher in Vienna
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