Overview

A one-act play in eight scenes, written in 1930 by Coward after he saw, and was moved by, Journey's End by R.C. Sherriff. John Cavan is a young English soldier, the son of a London editor, fighting in the trenches in 1917. He argues with his fellow soldier Perry Lomas, who believes John's father's newspaper is guilty of glorifying the war. At the end of the scene John is mortally wounded by enemy fire. The following six scenes take place in 1930 back in England, as John's ghost encounters friends, family, and his girlfriend Monica, and discovers what the war has meant to them - not a great deal, as it turns out. Finally, we return to 1917, and the scene of John's death. Post-Mortem is contained in the volume Noel Coward Collected Plays: Two.