This Happy Breed
Noël Coward
 ;Scene 1 – June 1919 The Gibbons family has just moved into 17 Sycamore Road in Clapham in South London. Ethel expresses her relief that her husband Frank has survived army service in World War I and her pleasure at moving into their new home. Their new next-door neighbour, Bob Mitchell, introduces himself. He turns out to be an old army colleague of Frank's, and the two reminisce. ;Scene 2 – December 1925 After Christmas dinner, the grown-ups, Frank and Ethel, Ethel's mother Mrs Flint and Frank's sister Sylvia, have retired to another room to leave the young people alone. These are Frank and Ethel's children, Vi, "a pleasant nondescript-looking girl of twenty", Queenie, "a year younger... prettier and a trifle flashy", Reg, aged eighteen, "a nice-looking intelligent boy", Reg's friend Sam and Queenie's friend Phyllis. Sam indulges in a spot of socialist preaching against capitalism and injustice. The young women fail to accord him the respect he thinks he deserves, and he and Reg leave. Bob Mitchell's son Billy visits the house. He is left alone with Queenie, and there is a short love scene between them. Queenie baffles him by saying that she so hates suburban life that she would not make him a good wife. She rushes out. Frank enters and encourages Billy. After Billy leaves, Ethel and Frank chat together, partly to avoid Sylvia's singing in the room next door and partly for the pleasure of each other's company. ;Scene 3 – May 1926 It is the time of the General Strike of 1926. The women of the household bicker. Frank and Bob are strike-breaking as volunteer driver and conductor of a London bus. Reg, encouraged by Sam, is backing the strikers and has not been seen for some days. Frank and Bob enter, singing "Rule, Britannia!" at the top of their voices, having had a few drinks to celebrate their successful strike-breaking. Sam and Reg enter, the latter slightly injured from a fracas connected with the strike. Vi confronts Sam for leading Reg astray and throws him out. Left alone together, Frank and Reg exchange views, Frank's being traditionalist and Reg's idealistic. They bid each other good night on good terms. ;Scene 1 – October 1931 On Reg's wedding day, Frank gives him paternal advice. The women of the household bicker. Queenie again complains of the tedium of suburban life. The family all leave for Reg and Phyl's wedding ceremony. ;Scene 2 – November 1931, midnight Queenie tip-toes downstairs in street clothes, carrying a suitcase. She puts a letter on the mantelpiece and leaves. Frank and Bob arrive after a convivial evening at a regimental dinner and amiably discuss the world in general. Ethel, woken by their noise, tells them off. Bob leaves. Frank and Ethel see Queenie's letter and open it. She has been having an affair with a married man and has run off with him. Ethel disowns Queenie as a member of the family. Frank is shocked at Ethel's intransigence. They retire to bed unhappily. ;Scene 3 – May 1932 The older members of the family discuss a letter they have received from Queenie in France. They are interrupted by the news that Reg and his wife have been killed in a road accident. ;Scene 1 – December 1936 The family have been listening to ex-king Edward VIII's abdication broadcast. Mrs Flint is no longer alive, Vi and Sam, now married, have become comfortably middle-aged. Billy enters with the news that he has run into Queenie in Menton. Her lover had left her and returned to his wife, leaving Queenie stranded. After some prevarication Billy says that Queenie is with him and indeed is now his wife. Queenie enters, and there is an awkward but loving reconciliation between her and Ethel. ;Scene 2 – September 1938 It is the time of Neville Chamberlain's return from Munich and the false hopes of averting war. Sylvia is as delighted by the Munich agreement as Frank is bitterly opposed to it. Bob comes in to say goodbye. He is moving to the country. He and Frank reminisce and look forward to the future anxiously. ;Scene 3 – June 1939 Frank and Ethel are about to move to the country. The house is now almost empty of furniture as they prepare to leave. Frank is left alone with his youngest grandchild, also called Frank. He talks to the baby philosophically, in a long monologue about what it means to be British. Ethel calls him to supper.