It’s almost 100 years since Noel Coward’s farcical comedy in regards to the eccentric Bliss Family was first staged within the West End and it appears acceptable to mount a brand new manufacturing on the beautiful Mill at Sonning in Berkshire simply 12 miles from Cookham the place the play is about. Yet the play is one thing of a curiosity of the interval full of theatrical video games performed by the self-centred egotistical household. Its artificiality might have amused us 100 years in the past however now all of it appears just a little tiresome and we by no means look after any of the characters or are notably amused by their affected behaviour. It doesn’t have the beautiful wit and banter of his 1930 play Private Lives, the spectacle of the 1931 extravaganza Cavalcade, the sweetness and romance of his 1936 play Still Life (so delightfully revived on the Mill at Sonning lately), the comical self-parody of the 1942 Present Laughter and even the fantastic characters of the 1941 Blithe Spirit.
Issy Van Randwyck joins this wonderful checklist within the Mill at Sonning manufacturing and has the stage presence and theatricality from her intensive efficiency expertise to create this diva of duplicitous video games taking part in. She revels in twists and turns they put one another and their friends by over the course of a night. She is magnificent as she winsomely provides somebody a flower milking each transfer to nice impact. She flirts outrageously with friends and struts the stage when she recreates scenes from her previous theatrical performances. She is the queen bee who the others buzz round, sometimes giving pretty much as good as they get.Emily Panes and William Pennington who play her two bickering kids Sorrel and Simon rise to the problem of making two unhealthy mannered disgraceful younger adults who benefit from the posing and playfulness of the household antics and convey their very own dramatic reactions to the occasions whereas recognising that the ambiance will get increasingly more insufferable every day. Nick Waring completes the household quartet because the bespectacled creator, David who appears to float out and in of the lounge oblivious to the visitor he has invited down.
The 4 friends who innocently arrive for a quiet weekend with their hosts by no means stand an opportunity on this ambiance. Aretha Ayeh performs the vampish Myra, invited by Simon, Darrell Brockis is the diplomat Richard invited by Sorrel, Daniel Fraser performs the younger impressionable Sandy invited by Judith and Beth Lilly is the unlucky Jackie invited by David. Their presence creates loads of awkward moments, however every appears contrived and the gamesmanship too apparent as if pre-planned quite than spontaneous.Some of the most effective comedian moments are delivered by Joanna Brookes as the previous theatre dresser Clara now appearing as housekeeper to the household who appears to have picked up theatrical traits from her mistress and makes essentially the most of each entrance and exit in a blatant try to steal the scene. She gives the most effective laughs of the present.
The complete factor has a sublime interval really feel with wonderful costumes and detailed staging in furnishings and props and director Tam Williams ensures that the Act 3 Breakfast scene is performed at a delicate comedian tempo as every serves their meals earlier than the household burst into one other damaging gameplay. However, the constraints of the Mill’s stage house as soon as once more led to a daft again wall with the doorway to the Library, backyard, upstairs, entrance door and kitchen all facet by facet in a approach that is senseless in any respect and results in some unbelievable entrances and exits. They profit from these with a self-shutting door to the entrance corridor and a squeaky second step so as to add some extra comedian moments. The sound impact of the automotive on the drive could be very efficient and reacted to properly by these on stage.
It is the primary time I had seen this play, so I got here to it recent just like the guests to the Bliss Household. I assume it’s known as Hay Fever as a nod to the allergic response every customer has to the countryside idyll, they discover themselves or maybe to the Flowers that appeal to the bees round Judith’s Queen Bee. There is not any denying that this good solid did a high quality job in creating the bad-mannered characters on stage, however I left with the sense of an allergic response to the play which appears dated and with out relevance to as we speak and the one worth is one among curiosity as to why it has had such a permanent attraction.Review by Nick Wayne
Rating: ★★★
Seat: Row F | Price of Ticket: £76 together with a 2-course meal