Hay fever: A light comedy in three acts

By Noël Coward

Four hosts, several unsuspecting guests and not nearly enough communication turn a country-house weekend into an elaborate social performance. In the hall of the Bliss family's home at Cookham, ordinary hospitality is displaced by overlapping invitations, private conversations and an overcrowded household in which visitors struggle to understand the rules. The family, meanwhile, treats confusion less as a problem than as fresh material for display. Judith, a former celebrated actress contemplating a return to the stage, brings theatrical instinct into domestic life. Yet she is only one part of a family whose flirtations, arguments and improvised games continually blur the boundary between sincere feeling and performance. Their guests arrive expecting recognisable social conventions; instead, they encounter hosts absorbed in their own shifting dramas. That contrast drives a domestic comedy built not on orderly manners, but on the comic consequences of people who turn every exchange into a scene. Compressed into three acts and a single weekend, the play draws its energy from competing conversations, artistic aspiration and unconventional hospitality. The confined setting sharpens every misunderstanding, while the family's self-display keeps changing the meaning of apparently simple encounters. Beneath the bustle lies a pointed comic question: how can social relations function when one household regards life itself as theatre? This book was out of print for decades and is now republished by Alpha Editions. It has been restored for today's and future generations. This edition is not just a reprint - it's a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9377786932
• ISBN13: 9789377786939
• Release Date: December 2026
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 82 Pages
• Weight: 0.27 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"