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.[1] 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
