Hay Fever

Hay Fever is a comedy by Noël Coward, staged at Wyndham's Theatre in London in a new production directed by Emily Burns. It brings together Christine Baranski and Richard E. Grant in the West End.

The play follows Judith Bliss, a former stage actress who has recently retired and misses the applause. At the family's country home, her husband David, a reclusive novelist, and their children Sorrel and Simon are too absorbed in their own concerns to offer her an audience.

Judith invites a young fan to stay for the weekend, but without her knowledge each member of the Bliss family has also invited a guest, and all the guests arrive at the same time. The house soon descends into disorder, with parlour games, sharp put-downs and demands for encores that nobody asked for.

Christine Baranski, the Emmy winner, makes her West End debut as Judith, opposite Richard E. Grant. The production is staged in the auditorium of Wyndham's Theatre, a venue that hosts shows across London, and it is presented as a comedy in the tradition of Coward's drawing-room writing.