Felicity Kendal is about to bring her critically acclaimed performance as Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever to the Duke Of York’s Theatre this spring, giving the West End a completely different take on the good life. Following on from the productions successful debut run at the Theatre Royal Bath and the subsequent UK tour in 2014, the comedy will be making its way back to London where is first opened in 1925 at the Ambassador’s Theatre, a year after being written by the playwright.
It’s scheduled to open at the Duke Of York’s Theatre on the 29th April with a lengthy three month run through until the 1st August 2015 with performances at 7:30pm Monday to Saturday and 3pm matinees every Thursday and Saturday. Ticket prices range from £33.50 to £69.50 online, but there may be cheap tickets if you buy directly from the venue itself to avoid booking fees. You can call the theatre on 0844 871 7627 for more information.
Hay Fever tells the story of the bad mannered, ostentatious and self absorbed Bliss family as they each invite a guest to stay with them for the weekend at their over the top country pile in Cookham, Berkshire. The unsuspecting guests don’t know what they’ve gotten themselves in for, but it doesn’t take long for the over-the-top antics of family matriarch and former West End star Judith, her big-headed novelist husband David and their bohemian kids Simon and Sorel to bring the mad-cap reality of the situation crashing around them with a melodramatic bump.
High farce intertwines with a comedy of bad manners to string together the loose plot in Coward’s play as he uses the characters as a mirror for the audience to see their own faults and limitations in, a bit like entertaining social criticism. It’s the 1920s equivalent to Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror without any of the technophobia, social paranoia and messed up sense of humour, but then things were just simpler back then.
When the play was first performed, the leading lady was British actress Dame Marie Tempest, who Noel Coward had intended for the role right from the very outset. Kendal has more than a passing resemblance for Tempest if you compare the photography of her from the 1925 debut and the new production scheduled for the Duke Of York’s Theatre. This similarity throughout the ages is also reputed to be true to most aspects of the latest run of the Lindsay Posner directed show as it has remained true to the original.
Kendal follows in the footsteps of her former co-star in The Good Life, Penelope Kieth, who played Judith Bliss in the 1984 BBC TV production of the play.
