HAY FEVER, written in three days and premiered in 1924, is one of the best English comedies and has always been popular with professional and amateur actors alike.
Noel Coward admitted it was far and away one of the most difficult plays to perform that he had ever encountered. “To begin with, it has no plot at all, and remarkably little action. Its general effectiveness therefore depends upon expert technique from each and every member of the cast.”
The revival is billed as a comedy of appalling manners. The Bliss family, mother, father, daughter, son, all four of them, are self-centred and bad-mannered Bohemians. Unbeknown to each other, each of them has invited a guest for the weekend. The guests have a dreadful time.
The wit is in the intolerable rudeness of the hosts and the embarrassment of the visitors. One guest sums up the situation perfectly:
“You’re the most infuriating set of hypocrites I’ve ever seen. This house is a complete featherbed of false emotions – you’re posing, self-centred egoists, and I’m sick to death of you… You haven’t got one sincere or genuine feeling among the lot of you – you’re artificial to the point of lunacy.”
The production, directed by Emily Burns, is headed by Christine Baranski, the famed American actor, who is making her West End debut. She plays Judith Bliss, a retired actress, who is liable to drift into melodramatic scenes from her past stage successes at the slightest opportunity.
There is a very funny scene when she deliberately takes a diplomat’s totally innocent kiss as a declaration of love and, to his considerable alarm, starts talking of divorcing her husband.
Baranski also comically sings a little song so excruciatingly badly she wins a round of applause. Richard E Grant plays her flamboyant husband flamboyantly.
The actor, who stands out most, is Charles Edwards, who plays the diplomat. He is particularly funny when he is agonisingly trying to have a conversation with a shy guest and failing completely. Edwards also gets a big laugh when he gently touches a barometer, and it falls off the wall.
Noel Coward, one hundred and one years on, is still a big winner. Hay Fever is well worth seeing.
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