Hay Fever (Modern Classics)

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The best-known plays of Coward's middle period, the late 1930s and the 40s, Present Laughter, This Happy Breed and Blithe Spirit are more traditional in construction and less unconventional in content. Coward toured them throughout Britain during the Second World War, and the first and third of them are frequently revived in Britain and the US. [170] The pathologically self-absorbed Blisses invite a quartet of hapless guests for the week-end : a career diplomat, a predatory society girl, a conventional sporty chap and a sweet-natured flapper. The guests turn out to be cannon fodder in the family’s ongoing solipsistic fantasies. The sociopathic hosts are briefly in-credulous when their guests creep away after breakfast.

Perhaps the best touch is Kendal's suggestion of a ratty discontent under all the self-dramatisation so that, when she says "David's been a good husband to me but he's wearing a bit thin now," you get an authentic whiff of marital decay.

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As such it is funny, overall, but requires much of the cast to make the play work. And here, this production is only partially successful. There are laughs in the play but nowhere near as many as you’d expect. The performances, whilst exuberant, miss the mark. The ensemble plays everything at maximum, so delivering none of the nuances that you need with such text. In one scene Mother Bliss and her children are play-acting a scene from a film. It’s supposed to be an over-the-top enactment of the scene, but here it barely differs from the acting throughout the show. Magill, Frank (ed.). Magill's Literary Annual, 1997. Vol.2. Pasadena: Salem Press. ISBN 978-0-89356-297-7. The record (1,466 performances) had been held by Charley's Aunt since the 1890s. [82] Blithe Spirit's West End record was overtaken by Boeing Boeing in the 1960s. [83]

This collection brings together the very best radio adaptations of Coward's works, encompassing sparkling comedies of manners 'Private Lives' and 'Hay Fever', farcical ghost story 'Blithe Spirit', and daring m?nage ? trois drama 'Design for Living'. Here, too, is his controversial first hit 'The Vortex'; the poignant 'Still Life' (the inspiration for the film Brief Encounter); and the semi-autobiographical 'Present Laughter'. In Which we Serve" Archived 5 December 2013 at archive.today , Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, accessed 5 December 2013 Fourth Street Chekov Theatre / City Center / The New York Public Library Theatre Collection / The Shakespearewrights / The Threepenny Opera (1956)

Noël Coward: BBC Radio Drama Collection

Both these productions delivered the delicious waspishness we expect of Coward's depictions of high-society partying and moral flippancy – but they also brought out the terror that there might be nothing beyond all that. The fear that love might be impossible and life pointless lurks in many of Coward's plays, and indeed throughout his own life. Mander, Raymond; Mitchenson, Joe; Day, Barry; Morley, Sheridan (2000) [1957]. Theatrical Companion to Coward (seconded.). London: Oberon. ISBN 978-1-84002-054-0. Set in a retirement home for actresses, Waiting in the Wings focuses on a feud between residents Lotta Bainbridge and May Davenport, who once both loved the same man. Hoare, Philip (1995). Noël Coward, A Biography. London: Sinclair-Stevenson. ISBN 978-1-4081-0675-4.

The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 26 June 1912, p. 10; "The Coliseum", 29 October 1912, p. 8; and "Varieties etc", 18 November 1912, p. 1 Twentieth-century blues: the songs of Noel Coward", "Ian Bostridge: Noël Coward songbook"; and "Sutherland sings Noel Coward", WorldCat, accessed 5 December 2013 a b c d e Chothia, Jean. "Coward, Noël", The Oxford Encyclopedia of British Literature, Oxford University Press, 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2020 (subscription required) In a study of Coward's plays, published in 1982, John Lahr called Hay Fever "the first and the finest of his major plays". [65] In 2014 Michael Billington wrote of a new production: "I found myself wondering why, 90 years after it was written, Noël Coward's comedy still proves so astonishingly durable. I suspect it is because it combines astute observation with ironclad technique". [66] Adaptations [ edit ]The Master may have hidden always behind a mask, but he was also hiding in plain sight – continually using his plays to remind audiences of the roles he played, the masks he wore. Consider this line from Leo, another character close to a self-portrait, in Design for Living: "It's all a question of masks, really… we all wear them as a form of protection; modern life forces us to." Fifty years since his death, we still enjoy Coward's wit and humour – but are maybe still uncovering the sadness that lies beneath. Left alone with Richard, Judith flirts with him, and when he chastely kisses her she theatrically over-reacts as though they were conducting a serious affair. She nonplusses Richard by talking of breaking the news to David. She in turn is nonplussed to discover Sandy and Sorel kissing in the library. That too has been mere flirtation, but both Judith and Sorel enjoy themselves by exaggerating it. Judith gives a performance nobly renouncing her claim on Sandy, and exits. Sorel explains to Sandy that she was just playing the theatrical game for Judith's benefit, as "one always plays up to Mother in this house; it's a sort of unwritten law." They leave. [24] Coward's first contributions to revue were in 1922, writing most of the songs and some of the sketches in André Charlot's London Calling!. This was before his first major success as a playwright and actor, in The Vortex, written the following year and staged in 1924. The revue contained only one song that features prominently in the Noël Coward Society's list of his most popular numbers – "Parisian Pierrot", sung by Gertrude Lawrence. [54] His other early revues, On With the Dance (1925) and This Year of Grace (1928) were liked by the press and public, and contained several songs that have remained well known, including "Dance, Little Lady", "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "A Room With a View". [54] [180] Words and Music (1932) and its Broadway successor Set to Music (1939) included "Mad About the Boy", "Mad Dogs and Englishmen", "Marvellous Party" and "The Party's Over Now". [54] When a peer of the realm plans to marry a Hollywood film star, his family are less than enthusiastic. But why should his mother's personal maid be even more implacably opposed to the wedding than his own flesh and blood? Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899–26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". [1]