Noël Coward's Hay Fever

About

Noël Coward's Comedy of Manners, directed by Tam Williams. All tickets include a delicious two-course meal in the restaurant before the show.

Noël Coward's effervescent comedy of bad manners – written in three days when he was 24 – is set in a country house in Berkshire.

Judith Bliss is a famous West End actress, technically retired. Husband David churns out romantic novels. Their grown-up children – Simon and Sorel – resolutely refuse to grow up.

The pathologically self-absorbed Blisses invite a quartet of hapless guests for the week-end : a career diplomat, a predatory society girl, a conventional sporty chap and a sweet-natured flapper. The guests turn out to be cannon fodder in the family's ongoing solipsistic fantasies. The sociopathic hosts are briefly in-credulous when their guests creep away after breakfast.

Hay Fever has something for everyone. The rude bohemians in the audience love watching themselves in action. More conventional theatre-goers relish the enactment of their worst social nightmares. A delirious roller-coaster of a play, encased in wit, comic brio and emotional truth.

"One of the most perfectly-engineered comedies of the century" – The Times