Hay Fever

By Noël Coward

Book Overview

"This 1925 comedy of manners that's funny yet also unorthodox and unsettling... a celebration of abnormality and at the same time a disquieting study of both the pleasures and the pains of not being able to restrain oneself." - Evening Standard When four guests, all invited by different members of the Bliss family, arrive for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead, they're expecting a idyllic retreat. But this peaceful promise is quickly trounced when the self-absorbed eccentricities of the Blisses are trained on the guests, who leave the country mansion humiliated and embarrassed. First produced in 1925, Hay Fever is a technical masterpiece, seamlessly combining high farce with a comedy of manners, and delivering Coward his first major commercial success. This new edition is published in Methuen Drama's iconic Modern Classics series to coincide with the 125th anniversary of Coward's birth and features a new introduction by Michael Billington.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350354112
• ISBN13: 9781350354111
• Release Date: June 2023
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Length: 104 Pages

Customer Reviews

Hay Fever

A delightful story as relevant today as it was when Noel Coward first wrote it and had it performed in London. CLM

"Do you think they know they are mad?"

Written when Coward was only twenty-four, and produced shortly after, in 1925, Hay Fever is a broad, manic farce which takes place in the country house of a self-absorbed, artistic family. The Blisses, each of whom is creative and spontaneous, ignore the stultifying conventions of society--Judith, an extravagant stage actress, who pursues her own whims whenever it pleases her; her husband David, an author, who enjoys his own spotlight and camp-followers; and their adult children, Simon and Sorel. When Sorel announces that she has invited a weekend guest and would like to be able to use "the Japanese room," she quickly discovers that each of the other family members has also invited a guest for "the Japanese room." In the course of the weekend, all the guests--conventional people attracted by the exciting lives these non-conformists have created for themselves--find themselves at the mercy of their more confident and assertive hosts. Guests who arrive thinking themselves in love with one person find themselves unexpectedly engaged to marry someone else. No one listens to them, no one recognizes them as individuals, and no one cares about their dashed expectations. As the Bliss family controls the activity during the weekend, the farce borders on absurdity. Outrageous scenes and emotional confrontations, part of their "normal" lives, prove too much for their guests. The fast-paced interaction one sees on stage constitutes the only "plot," and there are no background stories to add complexity. What you see is obvious--what Coward has intended you to see. Far less subtle than some of his later work and lacking the cynicism and clever repartee for which Coward later became known, the play nevertheless incorporates many of Coward's trademark themes--the sense of entitlement by artists (some of which, he hints, is because they really are superior), their flamboyant behavior, the casual attitudes toward marriage and sex, their egotism and insensitivity to "ordinary" people, along with their sense of fun as they pursue their own pleasure. These themes are all set into sharp relief by the behavior and attitudes of the guests, who gain no audience sympathy for their predicaments because they are decidedly dull. Though some believe that this is one of Coward's best plays, others will prefer the clever repartee, wit, and irony of the later plays, which tend to have a more intimate focus and smaller cast of characters. n Mary Whipple

Hit cast, hit comedy.

Noel Coward delights again with this hilarious partner-swapping comedy. The performers joyfully embrace the material as Coward explores the wonderness and the pitfalls of love and desire.