Noël Coward in Brief Encounter - American Conservatory Theater

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questions to consider
i. What aspects of love does each of the three couples represent?
2. Why do you think Laura and Alec are dissatisfied in their marriages?
3. Ultimately, why do Laura and Alec call off their affair?
4. In her interview, Emma Rice remembers, “In Britain people discussed how this affair
wouldn’t happen now: [Laura and Alec] would just sleep together.” What do you think?
5. Do you agree with Rice that Brief Encounter is a very British story?
6. What does this staging say about the relationships among theater, film, music, and storytelling?
for further information
Brownlow, Kevin. David Lean: A Biography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1996.
Coward, Noël. Brief Encounter. London: Faber & Faber, 1999.
——. Brief Encounter. dvd. Directed by David Lean. Criterion Collection, 2000.
——. Collected Plays. London: Methuen, 1999.
——. Noël Coward Collected Verse. London: Methuen Drama, 2007.
——. The Noël Coward Song Book. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1953.
——. Tonight at 8.30: Ten One-Act Plays. New York: Sundial Press, 1935.
Day, Barry, ed. Coward on Film: The Cinema of Noël Coward. Lanham, md: Scarecrow Press, 2005.
——. The Complete Lyrics of Noël Coward. London: Methuen Drama, 1998.
——. The Letters of Noël Coward. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
Hoare, Philip. Noël Coward: A Biography. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995.
Mander, Raymond, et al. The Theatrical Companion to Coward. London: Oberon Books, 2000.
The Music of Noël Coward. Official site. http://www.noelcowardmusic.com.
The Noël Coward Estate. Official site. http://www.noelcoward.com.
The Noël Coward Foundation. Official site. http://www.noelcoward.org.
The Noël Coward Society. Official site. http://www.noelcoward.net.
Payn, Graham, and Sheridan Morley, eds. The Noël Coward Diaries. Boston: Little, Brown
and Company, 1982.
Thomson, David. The People of the Sea: A Journey in Search of the Seal Legend. Washington,
d.c.: Counterpoint, 2000.