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The eccentric Bliss family – Judith, a recently retired actress, David, a self-absorbed novelist, and their two unconventional children – live in a world where reality slides easily into fiction. Upon entering this world, the weekend guests – a proper diplomat, a shy flapper, an athletic boxer and a fashionable sophisticate – are thrown into melodramatic scenes wherein their hosts profess emotions and react to situations that do not really exist.
The comedic chaos ends only when the tortured visitors tip-toe out the door. Cleverly constructed and slightly cynical, this entertaining romp stars Richard E. Grant and Christine Baranski, making her West End debut.
What did the critics think?
Hay Fever is at the Wyndham’s Theatre until 12 December
Photo Credit: Marc Brenner
Aliya Al-Hassan, BroadwayWorld: As Judith Bliss, Christine Baranski makes her West End debut as an actress playing a bad actress. Judith has very reluctantly retired from the stage, but is keen to bring theatrics into her life wherever possible. Baranski has a commanding presence, but her muddled accent of an odd mixture of RP and Atlantic twang impacts some of her delivery. But when she gets into her stride she leans into the acute and comedic melodrama of the role with gusto, sweeping from low imperious tones to much higher octaves.
Emma John, The Guardian: Instead it’s Ophelia Lovibond’s Sorel who emerges as the most vital character. She’s 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’s 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’t quite up and running – but a stronger second half suggests that when the production beds in, there will be plenty of classic Coward to enjoy.
Andrzej Lukowski, TimeOut: Don’t get me wrong: there’s always room for a bit of Noël Coward. The man knew how to craft a quip, and it can be easy to forget that the dandy playwright’s depictions of infidelity and drug abuse were radical in their day. Private Lives is an all-time banger. You are a bad person if you don’t like Brief Encounter. But this revival of 1924’s Hay Fever feels like almost every detail of it could have been copied from a production a century ago, from Frankie Bradshaw’s drawing room set to the cast’s RP-tastic performances as dysfunctional poshos the Bliss family. Weren’t the Angry Young Men supposed to have put a stop to this sort of thing?
Dominic Cavendish, The Telegraph: Things pick up after the interval, as Baranski finally begins to amplify the gesticulating histrionics, and the plot-lines – which trap the guests in absurd unintended romantic commitments – joyously converge. The supporting cast is largely very fine, especially Will Close as the insouciant, artistic-minded son, Lucy Karczewski as an excruciatingly gauche ingenue and Nancy Carroll as the sharp-eyed socialite who denounces her hosts as an “infuriating set of hypocrites”.
Tim Bano, Financial Times: Mostly, though, it chugs along in a pleasant and satisfying way, better than your local amateur effort but no great revelatory production to tug Coward into the 21st century. Grant is entertaining enough to watch, with nutty professor hair quivering on his head, and a childish giddiness at the games his family plays. Strong support comes from Nancy Carroll, who gives an effortless performance as one of the invited guests.
Dominic Maxwell, The Times: Coward’s prodigious dialogue calls for robust precision. Carroll leads a cavalry of light-comic supporting turns who know what’s needed. Charles Edwards is sublimely stiff in his tailored suits as the diplomat Richard. Lucy Karczewski is a quiet joy as a 1920s shy girl you could mistake for a socially anxious Gen Zer. Their stilted chit-chat is a masterclass in disconnection. Ophelia Lovibond and Will Close as the Bliss children and Jo McInnes as the sardonic housekeeper complete a lively cast.
Sarah Crompton, WhatsOnStage: The problem for the actors playing the Bliss family – a shock-haired Richard E Grant as the egotistical novelist husband, Will Close as the posturing painter son Simon, and Ophelia Lovibond as the daughter Sorel – is that they are required both to be monstrous and adorable. It’s a difficult balance to pull off, though Simon in particular is gifted with some gem-like lines. His observation that “it’s so silly of people to try to cultivate the artistic temperament” while holding a paint brush and wearing a smock is a particular pleasure.
Olivia Rook, London Theatre: Baranski certainly has stage presence, as she wafts about in a gold caftan, with billowing sleeves, gently gesticulating while her mellifluous voice floats out to the auditorium. She captures Judith’s dismissive superficiality and delivers wonderfully deadpan lines such as “Perfect agony, I wish I were dead”, emitting a small sigh or staring off into the distance as though waiting for her close-up (appropriate enough, given Baranski has spent much of her life working on screen). Her performance feels slightly underpowered for the role, though she picks up the pace in Act II after being startled by a kiss from Richard, and catching not only her daughter tucked away in the library with Sandy, but her husband in a romantic entanglement with Myra.
Average Rating: 65.0%
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