ALBERY THEATRE
ST MARTINS LANE, LONDON WC2

 
 


(in order of appearance)


Sorel Bliss
Simon Bliss
Clara
Judith Bliss
David Bliss
Sandy Tyrell
Myra Arundel
Richard Greatham
Jackie Coryton

ACT1
ACT 11
ACT 11I


Abigail Cruttenden
Nick Waring
Maria Charles
Maria Aitken
John Standing
Richard Garnett
Carmen Du Sautoy
Christopher Godwin
Sara Crowe

Saturday afternoon
Saturday evening
Sunday morning

The action of the play takes place in the hall of the Blisses' house at Cookham in June, 1925

.... .Athole Stewart & Marie Tempest in
......Hay Fever, Ambassadors Theatre, London

Noël Coward wrote Hay Fever in a frenzied three days. It was initially written for the West End actress Marie Tempest. Coward read her the script in her drawing room in 1924 but she turned the offer down. She wanted a drama, not a light comedy.

A year later, as The Vortex began pulling in large audiences, she accepted the role and even demanded that Coward direct the play allowing John Gielgud to take over the lead from him in The Vortex. Hay Fever was an immediate success and played to packed West End audiences for a year.


...Carmen Du Sautoy & John Standing in
...Hay Fever, Albery Theatre, London
Despite its small cast, Hay Fever is actually a very difficult play to perform. Any performance of it relies heavily on individual performances and it is the interplay of the characters on which the play is founded. It is full of awkward moments, social embarrassments and comic misunderstandings where traditional social conventions fail when pitted against the bohemian conventions adopted by the Blisses.