Noel Coward’s play ‘Hay fever’ may be getting close to celebrating it’s ninetieth birthday but the wit and wisdom contained within the play is timeless. Celebrated, and greatly loved, actress Felicity Kendal show’s she is master of comic timing and performance in this comical insight into family, manners and pretenses.
The set for this show is notable, a full stage turned into a English country home, complete with furniture, a piano, books, staircases, exits and entries. So often now stage set are reduced to minimalist interpretations of spaces. This show is good old fashioned theatre delivered the way it was intended.
Spending the weekend at their family’s country house brother and sister Simon and Sorel Bliss who are both in their twenties and leading bohemian lives reveal that they have both invited guests to stay the weekend and they begin to argue over which guest will get to stay in which room of the house. Their mother, a retired actress enters and announces that she too has invited her latest admirer to stay. when their father, a writer, reveals that he has also invited a guest – they suddenly realise they have a full house, little food and conflicting goals for the weekend.
‘Hay Fever’ is incredibly funny and this cast, who have taken the play from Britain to Australia, don’t miss a single opportunity to get a laugh from the audience. Their deliveries are nuanced; a subtle look, or a flick of an arm, done just the right way can be completely hilarious.
Felicity Kendal is the household name in the cast, but everyone is in top form. Kendal is endearing as Judith Bliss, the attention seeking retired actress who has discovered that country living and a life out of the spotlight are not to her liking. Simon Shepard plays her serious husband who writes novels, while Alice Orr-Ewing takes on role of temperamental daughter Sorel and Edward Franklin plays her brother Simon.
Celeste Dodwell, who plays the role of Jackie Coryton, the father guest – an young ingenue, is brilliant. The former ‘Home and Away’ star shows she’s got serious acting skills and delivers some of the biggest laughs of the show with her expressions.
This is good old fashioned theatre done extremely well, with a little bit of star power not going astray either. This will be one of the best shows of the year! Don’t miss it.
Noel Coward’s ‘Hay Fever’ is at The Regal Theatre in Subiaco until Saturday 29th November.
Graeme Watson, images: Nobby Clark
