Hay Fever

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Comedy Closed 5 August 2006

Haymarket Theatre Royal Haymarket, London

You are cordially invited to the weekend from hell
The Place: Cookham. The Time: June 1925
Your Hosts: The Bliss Family

Noel Coward's classic comedy Hay Fever is set in the Thames-side country house of Judith Bliss, incandescent star of the London stage, who is now sampling the mixed blessings of early retirement with her family.

The Bliss family have invited various guests to stay the weekend - Judith has a fan coming to stay, Sandy Tyrell; her husband, David, a novelist, has a young flapper girl, Jackie Coryton, visiting in order to study her 'in domestic surroundings' for his next novel; Judith's daughter, Sorel has a diplomat, Richard Greatham; and Judith's son, Simon has invited Myra Arundel. Unfortunately none has told any of the others that they've invited a guest for the weekend...

"Peter Bowles is perfect - Dame Judi is simply superb - The entire cast are first-rate in this classy revival" The Daily Express

Starring Judi Dench as 'Judith Bliss', Peter Bowles as 'Davis Bliss', Belinda Lang as 'Myra Arundel' and Kim Medcalf 'Sorel Bliss' along with Dan Stevens as 'Simon Bliss', Charles Edwards as 'Sandy Tyrell', William Chubb as 'Richard Greatham', Olivia Darnley as 'Jackie Coryton' and Lin Blakely as 'Clara'.

"A comic masterpiece. Dench gives a masterclass in high-definition acting. A night of English high comedy at its absolute best - and a smash hit if ever I saw one" The Daily Telegraph

Simon Bliss: What do you mean, exactly, by bad manners? Lack of social tricks and small-talk?
Sorel Bliss: We never attempt to look after people when they come here.
Simon Bliss: Why should we? It's loathsome being looked after.
Sorel Bliss: Yes, but people like little attentions. We've never once asked anyone if they've slept well.
Simon Bliss: I consider that an impertinence.

"Perfectly perfect - This Peter Hall production is a classic - Irresistibly infectious" The Daily Mail

"As the vain and needy theatrical has-been Judith Bliss, Judi Dench has tempered this part to perfection; she is capricious and manipulative while also managing to grit her teeth and be fond about the usurping youth and beauty of her daughter... Even without Dench, this play about the bonds that tie even an apparently warring family is one of Coward's best, but with her it is unmissable." The Sunday Telegraph

"Coward's wit sparkles in a serving of comic bliss" The Times

"Noel Coward's Hay Fever is a delicious comedy of fabulously bad manners. In Peter Hall's new production, stylishly staged on Simon Higlett's handsome Arts and Crafts set, Dame Judi Dench gives yet another performance to be treasured. She's Judith Bliss, a West End thesp who has retired to the country but, having tried without success to become upper-crust, she is planning a comeback." The Mail on Sunday

"Dame Judi hits fever pitch. Pure, delectable fun. A smashing hit" The London Evening Standard

"First staged in 1925, Hay Fever is one of Noel Coward's most silken dramas: stinging witticisms flung across chasms of incomprehension; a play which celebrates and satirises actors; a drama about families which is, like them, both cosy and desperate... Judi Dench plays exactly the kind of actress she's famous for not being: florid, fluttering, drawn to lurid dramas, constantly retiring from the stage and constantly coming back. Which gives piquancy to her star performance... She's a star playing another kind of star. She could do it in her sleep, but she still provides moments of delight and surprise." The Observer

Noel Coward on writing Hay Fever: "The idea came to me suddenly in the garden, and I finished it in about three days, a fact which later on, when I had become news value, seemed to excite gossip-writers inordinately, although why the public should care whether a play takes three days or three years to write I shall never understand. Perhaps they don't. However, when I had finished it and had it neatly typed and bound up, I read it through and was rather unimpressed with it. This was an odd sensation for me, as in those days I was almost always enchanted with everything I wrote. I knew certain scenes were good, especially the breakfast scene in the last act, and the dialogue between the giggling flapper and the diplomat in the first act, but apart from these it seemed to me a little tedious. I think that the reason for this was that I was passing through a transition stage as a writer; my dialogue was becoming more natural and less elaborate, and I was beginning to concentrate more on the comedy values of the situation rather than the comedy values of actual lines."