{"id":633818,"date":"2026-10-02T03:30:41","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633818\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T03:30:41","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T03:30:41","slug":"hay-fever-review-richard-e-grant-and-christine-baranski-host-cowards-country-house-shenanigans-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/633818\/","title":{"rendered":"Hay Fever review \u2013 Richard E Grant and Christine Baranski host Coward\u2019s country house shenanigans | Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hay Fever, now one of No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s best-known and most-performed works, hasn\u2019t always been a smash hit. British critics who found its West End<\/a> debut in 1925 amusing enough nevertheless noted its lack of plot, and the first Broadway production was a flop. A critic for Vogue called it \u201cfunny in places\u201d, which sounds like the kind of stinging putdown you\u2019d expect from the playwright\u2019s own hand.<\/p>\n

A century of performances have proved the play\u2019s lasting power, but its comic effect has always lain less in the words as written than their delivery \u2013 it is, after all, about a family that is \u201cartificial to the point of lunacy\u201d. At their centre is diva Judith Bliss, who has retired from the stage to take up the role of country hostess. When she, her husband and their self-consciously bohemian children Sorel and Simon all invite surprise guests for the weekend, the unfortunate attendees find themselves embroiled in a self-serving drama of exquisite embarrassment.<\/p>\n

Radiating charm \u2026 Ophelia Lovibond in Hay Fever. Photograph: Marc Brenner<\/p>\n

The action takes place on Frankie Bradshaw\u2019s sumptuous set, with corniced ceilings and French windows at the Blisses\u2019 Berkshire pile that are almost an extension of the Wyndham\u2019s ornate interior. The stage is populated with effusions of flowers and a fine cast, not least Richard E Grant<\/a> who seems to be having a heyday of robe-and-slipper roles. He brings his trademark shock-haired vigour to the narcissist-novelist David, bounding down a grand staircase to read his latest work to his family.<\/p>\n

Will Close\u2019s Simon swings from pretentious artiste \u2013 in paint-stained plus-fours and buttoned boots \u2013 to Tiggerish lover at the arrival of the experienced Myra (a statuesque Nancy Carroll). And even the seen-it-all-seductress is less in command than she thought as the games progress from after-dinner entertainments to more overtly saucy ones. Charles Edwards, meanwhile, maintains an endless gallantry as the visiting diplomat whose social skills are strained to the limit as he falls beneath Judith\u2019s spell.<\/p>\n

Judith was inspired by real-life American actor Laurette Taylor \u2013 excuse enough, should Christine Baranski have chosen, to play the part in her own accent. Instead, a technically sound RP oddly constrains her. Judith\u2019s combination of pretend languor and genuine vagueness mean that jokes go begging and some lines land too earnestly, as when she tells her daughter: \u201cI\u2019m very glad you\u2019re pretty.\u201d The squabbles and blow-ups are comically theatrical enough, but there\u2019s not enough of Judith\u2019s much-vaunted \u201cvitality\u201d to entirely make sense of them when they come.<\/p>\n

Instead it\u2019s Ophelia Lovibond\u2019s Sorel who emerges as the most vital character. She\u2019s the only one of the bunch with any self-awareness, a smile half-playing on her lips, radiating charm that makes even her own selfishness seem forgivable. Director Emily Burns\u2019s CV majors in farce and she stages some lovely bits of business, including a scene when a servant silently lays a breakfast table to a swellingly romantic soundtrack and a Gone With the Wind-crimson backdrop. On the first of multiple press nights, some of the comic timing isn\u2019t quite up and running \u2013 but a stronger second half suggests that when the production beds in, there will be plenty of classic Coward to enjoy.<\/p>\n

At Wyndham\u2019s theatre, London<\/a>, until 12 December<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hay Fever, now one of No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s best-known and most-performed works, hasn\u2019t always been a smash hit. British…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-633818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633818"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633818\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}