Hay Fever Theatre & Performing Arts

Noel Coward’s Hay Fever epitomises the sophisticated wit and cynicism of the era between the two wars. It is a comedy of bad manners.

Noel Coward’s Hay Fever epitomises the sophisticated wit and cynicism of the era between the two wars. It is a comedy of bad manners about a family who torment a group of unsuspecting house guests with their theatrical excesses. It is a fabulous, frothy, feverish farce with underlying themes of cruelty, jealousy and despair.
Each of the limelight-loving family members, not least Judith, the mother, has secretly invited a guest. Misjudged meetings, secret seductions and scandalous revelations are rife during an outrageous weekend.

This year’s production will be presented at The Mowlem Theatre on two Fridays as part of WAC’s Dorset tour and ‘we’re delighted to be able to perform in this great traditional theatre’, says their Producer Jo Puttick.

Tickets are available directly from The Mowlem on 01929-422239 and at www.mowlemtheatre.com and from the theatre’s box office for the performances at 19.30 on both Friday 24th June and Friday 1st July.

Hay Fever is a hilarious rollercoaster through a weekend with the family from hell, featuring some of Coward's finest creations, all of them subject to Judith's outrageous whims and contrary demands. Judith Bliss, once glittering star of the London stage, now in early retirement, is still enjoying life with more than a little high drama and the occasional big scene.

As the weekend approaches, Judith, her novelist husband David, and their two equally self-obsessed children, Simon and Sorel, have each invited a guest to join them in the country. Each guest is woefully inappropriate, and equally unprepared for the parlour games, in-fighting, and outrageous proposals on which the Bliss family appear to thrive.

This is Noel Coward's incomparable domestic comedy of bad manners and the surreal lives of the 1920s bright young things.

More details