Interval (play)

{{Short description|Play by Sumner Locke Elliott}}

{{Infobox play

| name = Interval

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| writer = Sumner Locke Elliott

| characters = Laura Mannington, actress
Terry Cotswald, playwright
Marthy, the dresser
Joyce Clements

| setting = Behind the scenes at the Queen Anne Theatre, London

| premiere = 1 April 1939{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17571137 |title="INTERVAL.". |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 April 1939 |accessdate=24 March 2013 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

| place = Independent Theatre, Sydney

| orig_lang = English

| subject =

| genre =

}}

Interval is a 1939 play by Sumner Locke Elliott. It was popular and was performed throughout Australia at a time when this was not common for local plays.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article59657051 |title="STARS OF THE AIR" SUMNER LOCKE-ELLIOTT—PLAYWRIGHT, ACTOR AND SOLDIER. |newspaper=Kilmore Free Press |location=Kilmore, Vic. |date=14 December 1944 |accessdate=24 March 2013 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}} {{cite book|url= https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&filename=0&article=2376&context=theses&type=additional.|title=Sumner Locke Elliott: writing life|first=Sharon|last= Clarke|publisher=University of Woollongong|year=1995|page=228}}

The Sydney Morning Herald called it "interesting drama."

The play was published in book form in 1942 by Melbourne University Press It was one of four plays published with the aid of the Commonwealth Literary Fund, the others being Daybreak, Red Sky at Morning and A Touch of Silk. The Sydney Morning Herald said Interval "has some smart repartee and succeeds in showing the deterioration of an actress's character under the influence of success."{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17813535 |title=AUSTRALIAN PLAYS. |newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=3 October 1942 |accessdate=24 March 2013 |page=6 |publisher=National Library of Australia}}

Elliott later recalled the play as "an unqualified success, even being revived the following year at North Sydney and I still remember it most fondly partly because of the companionable cast it had and because it contained a showy part for the author. At its second performance all the scenery fell down during the author’s first scene on him."{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/australiandrama10000rees/page/183/mode/1up?q=interval|page=183|title= Australian drama, 1970-1985 : a historical and critical survey

|last=Rees|first=Leslie|year=1987 }}