Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts
1935
The play opens on a seemingly ordinary household: a fussy widow, her long-suffering niece, and the hired help. But something is wrong in this Essex bungalow. A woman has vanished from a nearby hotel. And the young man who arrives at their door Dan, the page-boy with the disarming smile wears his normalcy like a mask. Every smile is a performance. Every compliment, a calculated move.Olivia sees it immediately. Something is wrong with Dan. But how do you warn a household desperate for companionship that the charming young man in their midst is something far more dangerous than he appears? As Dan inserts himself into Mrs. Bramson's life with unsettling ease, the tension mounts through clipped British pleasantries and mounting dread. Williams understood that horror often wears a friendly face, and that the most terrifying crimes happen behind closed doors in respectable homes.
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“take a bit of an interest in some other body but me? OLIVIA (taken aback): I'm not interested in you. Only you don't talk. That's bound to make people wonder. DAN: I can talk a lot sometimes. A drop o' drink makes a power o' difference to me. (Chuckling) You'd be surprised…. Ah…. He returns to his work. OLIVIA: I wonder if I would…. DAN: I know you would…. OLIVIA: I think I can diagnose you all right. DAN: Carry on. OLIVIA: You haven't any feelings … at all…. He looks slowly up at her. She has struck home.””
— Emlyn Williams
“OLIVIA: You don't mean she may be … she mayn't be alive? BELSIZE: It's possible. MRS. BRAMSON: You'll be saying she's been murdered next! BELSIZE: That's been known. MRS. BRAMSON: Lot of stuff and nonsense. From a policeman too.Anybody'd think you'd been brought up on penny dreadfuls. OLIVIA turns and goes to the window. BELSIZE (to MRS. BRAMSON): Did you see about the fellow being hanged for the Ipswich murder? In last night's papers? MRS. BRAMSON: I've lived long enough not to believe the papers. BELSIZE: They occasionally print facts. And murder's occasionally a fact.””
— Emlyn Williams
“MRS. BRAMSON: She oughtn't to talk to me like that. I know she steals my sugar. MRS. TERENCE: That's a living lie. (Going round to her) Here are your roses. MRS. BRAMSON: You've cut them too young. I knew you would. MRS. TERENCE (taking up her tray and starting for the kitchen): Then you come out and pick the ones you want, and you'll only 'ave yourself to blame. MRS. BRAMSON: That's a nice way to talk to an invalid. MRS. TERENCE: If you're an invalid, I'm the Prince of Wales.””
— Emlyn Williams
“NURSE (rising and taking her bag from the sofa): Well, I've that confined lady still waiting in Shepperley. (Going into the hall) Toodle-oo! MRS. BRAMSON: Mind you call again Wednesday. In case my neuritis sets in again. NURSE (turning in the hall): I will that. And if paralysis pops up, let me know. Toodle-oo! She marches cheerily out of the front door. MRS. BRAMSON cannot make up her mind if the last remark is sarcastic or not.””
— Emlyn Williams
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<a href="https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ce"><img src="https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg" alt="Read Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts by Emlyn Williams free on Lex" width="160" height="40"></a>[](https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ce)[url=https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ce][img]https://lex-books.com/badges/read-on-lex.svg[/img][/url]Read Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts by Emlyn Williams free on Lex: https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ceCite this book
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Williams, Emlyn. Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts. Lex, lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ce.Williams, E. (1935). Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ceWilliams, Emlyn. Night Must Fall: A Play in Three Acts. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/night-must-fall-a-play-in-three-acts-217de993-644a-4b2d-918c-b1720bffe7ce.
