Theatrical Bliss

This week the Coliseum plays host to the lovably monstrous Bliss family of Noel Coward’s classic HayFever. Coward’s perennial favourite comedy of manners, or even bad manners, has been taking shape over recent weeks in a hugely enjoyable rehearsal period. It’s great to be able to fill the stage with a nine strong cast for this production and we are welcoming back some familiar faces to the theatre.

Jackie Morrison and James Simmons are back with us as the eccentric host couple Judith and David Bliss, having previously played the leads of Amanda and Elyot in Coward’s Private Lives which received fantastic reviews back in 2011.

Bringing the inappropriately named Bliss family to life has been a joy for me with smiles and laughter all around from the cast as the ridiculous theatrical arguments of Coward’s scripted barbs are tossed back and forth between the irritable family members and their unassuming guests.

We all know people like the Bliss family in Hay Fever – people who are inexcusably rude, but fun, and they get away with it, the sort of people who invite you round for a drink only to be horrified when you actually arrive and point out they have no tonic for your gin.

The playwright himself described Hay Fever as: “One of the one of the most difficult plays to perform that I have encountered… it has no plot at all, and remarkably little action”. That may well be true but the talented cast we have assembled fill our auditorium with hilarious dynamism and verve. Besides, we all enjoy a challenge here.

Despite Coward’s own analysis the play has stood the test of time and has been an audience favourite since it was first conceived in 1924. It’s a superb script for a summer’s eve too and the Pimm’s will be flowing at the Coliseum as the Bliss family reluctantly open their house to their guests - thankfully we shall merely be onlookers, safe from the callous toying of the unfeeling hosts.

The whole process of putting the fun into dysfunctional with this close-knit cast really transfers an impetuous energy onto the stage. And what a stage it is, designer Dawn Allsopp has excelled in creating a traditional idyllic English country house – the setting for the Bliss’s tortuous theatrical games as they heartlessly pull the rug out from under their unwitting guests’ feet.

See you at the theatre,

Kevin

Artistic Director