Peace In Our Time

A PLAY IN A PUB

For the first time on record  a rehearsal of a play has been held in a Brisbane hotel bar.

The play, Noel Coward's "Peace in Our Time", is to be presented by the Brisbane Repertory Theatre in the Albert Hall this week. Coward took as his theme that the Battle of Britain was lost and England was occupied by the Germans.

The amateur company formed 26 years ago, is Brisbane's oldest.

The entire performance of the play takes place in the bar of an old English pub, the Shy Gazelle.

Producer of the play, Alex Foster, had to call on the biggest cast ever put into a play by the group - 35.

"With such a big cast many of whom had never been in a hotel, it was difficult to always get the entire company to feel it was inside an English pub" Foster said. "The only thing to do was to give the whole cast an opportunity to experience the hotel atmosphere, and the only way out was to have a rehearsal in a bar."

"Some of them were dubious at first, but once they started they soon felt the atmosphere."

The publican, George Chapman, who made his bar available, said after the performance,"I have seen all sorts of acts in my hotel but I never thought I would see a full play."

Brisbane Telegraph, 21 March 1950