Dear Octopus

Dear Octopus is a comedy by the playwright and novelist Dodie Smith. It opened at the Queen's Theatre, London on 14 September 1938. On the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 the run was halted after 373 performances; after a spell in the provinces in early 1940 the play was brought back to London and played two further runs there until 31 August 1940. The play depicts the relationships between three generations of a large family. The "dear octopus" of the title refers to the family itself, whose tentacles its members can never escape. Background Smith had been a successful playwright throughout the 1930s. Her 1935 play Call It a Day had the longest run of any play by a woman dramatist up to that time, 509 performances. The impresario Binkie Beaumont of H. M. Tennent secured the performing rights of Dear Octopus and offered his friend John Gielgud the romantic lead. Gielgud was happy to accept, having recently finished a season under his own management which had not been particularly profitable. Gielgud's co-star was Marie Tempest. The role of the retiring young employee who is in love with the hero was originally planned for Celia Johnson or Diana Wynyard, but was played by Angela Baddeley to great critical approval. The play opened in London after a provincial tour.the real first night, at the Queen's Theatre on 14 September 1938, began gloomily. The crisis in Czechoslovakia was on everyone's mind. During the first half, the house was subdued, faces grave and laughs few. It seemed to have become dull. Then, in the first interval, a dramatic deus ex machina, Charles Morgan, arrived from The Times with news, which spread like wildfire through the theatre, that Neville Chamberlain was flying to meet Hitler at Berchtesgaden. "It was as if the whole audience breathed a sigh of relief. And from then on the play went superbly, and built to a magnificent reception."