The cast of Hay Fever; image by Lisa Tomasetti
In the bohemian bubble of the Bliss family, tempers flare over innocuous events, people fall in love at the drop of a hat, and lounging around in a bathtub is a perfectly acceptable way to spend Saturday morning.
Retired actress Judith Bliss (Heather Mitchell) is the eye of the storm, around whom much chaos revolves. As she flits in and out of re-enacting scenes from her favourite plays one is never sure when she is performing and when she is for real. Her children Simon and Sorrel (Tom Conroy, Harriet Dyer) have inherited her flair for the dramatic, although Sorrel expresses an urge to break away from her surreal family. Husband and father David is largely absent, locked away in his study writing his novel.
When each family member invites a guest to spend the weekend, the unsuspecting guests are sucked into the Bliss family’s vortex of theatrics and eventually driven away by the mayhem.
Noël Coward’s 1925 comedy was largely based on his experiences with the company he kept. The play unfolds like a weekend bender, fuelled by inertia alone where all events bleed into a hazy montage of randomness. Structurally, acts one and two run a little long. Blink and you might miss act three by comparison. A pre-show drink will help you get into the rhythm – this is not a production that benefits from over-analysis.
The tone of the play reflects much of Coward’s sentiment towards a subculture that he admired and was accepted into, but never really belonged to. It is as feel-good as a story can get with such outrageously vapid characters. Mitchell is fabulous as flirty, frivolous Judith. She masterfully milks the comedy out of every line she delivers. This is a play that largely hinges on this performance, and here Mitchell truly shines.
The only moment of inconsistency was the Amy Winehouse number, in which a scene of slapstick melodrama doesn’t quite work. Judith’s willing seductee Richard (Alan Dukes) is a stand-out support, providing the perfect vehicle for Judith’s comedy to play out. The rest of the cast is great, each playing out the idiosyncrasies of their respective characters whilst balking at the idiosyncrasies of each other.
Alicia Clement’s beautiful set is one of the highlights of this production. In this ramshackle space overrun by potted plants and rambling foliage, Clements has created a living, breathing set that adds a much needed touch of nature into the artificiality of the Bliss family’s world, preventing it from becoming entirely contrived and theatrical. The bathtub in lieu of a couch in the living room is a stroke of genius.
Imara Savage’s vibrant direction has truly captured the spirit of a work that is essentially a loving tribute to madness and artistry, bringing the Roaring 20s into the present day with barely any hiccups. In this production, the darker subtexts of the decay of the Bliss family are not so much ignored as they are superseded by the strength of their family bond, and Savage has embraced with warm optimism this depiction of a perfectly functioning dysfunctional family.
Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5 stars
Noël Coward’s Hay Fever
A Sydney Theatre Company production
Director: Imara Savage
Designer: Alicia Clements
Lighting Designer: Trent Suidgeest
Composer & Sound Designer: Max Lyandvert
With: Briallen Clarke, Tom Conroy, Alan Dukes, Harriet Dyer, Genevieve Lemon, Tony Llewellyn-Jones, Josh McConville, Heather Mitchell, Helen Thomson
Drama Theatre, Sydney Opera House
11 April – 21 May 2016
