Hay Fever

Synopsis

Classic comedy of bad manners about a flamboyant family. The characters of Judith and David Bliss were based on real life friends of the playwright, American actress Laurette Taylor and her husband Hartley Manners. The eccentric couple were renowned for their table manners, surprised guests would often endure shrill arguments - waged entirely among the family - which often ended with them storming out of the room, leaving their bewildered guests to make what they could of the rest of the evening.

Our Review:

21 April 2006

Noel Coward had just made his first real breakthrough – playing drug-addled bad boy Nicky Lancaster in The Vortex in 1924 – when this delightful comedy of weekend guests and bad manners, Hay Fever opened to notices which referred to the play variously as being “dull, amusing, thin, slight, tedious, witty and brittle”.

All of these epithets could be fairly applied to Peter Hall’s revival depending on your mood or disposition. But none of them would be sufficient to describe the glorious performance of Judi Dench as Judith Bliss, the retired actress who distils each moment of everyday social life into its theatrical possibility. Dame Judi takes the role by the scruff of the neck and shakes it into a sort of hectic vivacity, displaying the monstrosity of her ego with a speed and gravity, ensuring the play bristles with laughter.

Judith and her philandering husband, David (a suave, perfectly attired Peter Bowles), and their two spoilt chil...

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Latest User Review

71.130.57.216) - 21 July 2006:

Judi Dench is the expected highlight of this very solid revival of Coward's durable comedy. Playing against type makes her even more delightful....

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