HAY FEVER To 2 May.
Chichester.
HAY FEVER
by Noel Coward.
Chichester Festival Theatre To 2 May 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Sat & 22, 29 April 2pm.
Audio-described 24 April, 25 April 2pm.
BSL Signed 22 April 7.30pm.
Runs 2hr 10min One interval.
TICKETS: 01243 781312.
www.cft.org.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 17 April.
Comedy revival where it never rains but it pours.
Before the end of Noel Coward’s comedy, Simon Bliss finishes his artwork, his father completes a novel and mother Judith declares she’ll return to the stage - she still wows the gossip columnists by merely visiting a theatre. Nor bad for one weekend. So, if the guests they’d each invited to Cookham feel a trifle neglected, it’s surely a small price for all the artistic creation.
Coward doesn’t suggest the Blisses are bad artists, any more than Present Laughter’s equally self-absorbed stage-star Garry Essendine. Judith’s former dresser Clara stays with the family despite the domestic chaos and under-staffing. it's a wonder the passing fancies they've asked down command any sympathy.
An awkward sporty-type, a diplomat practised in polite insincerity, an expert back-biter and an empty-headed secretary, they’re willing to sacrifice each other in order to make their escape. And in the central, Saturday-evening, act they pair-up with different Bliss family members. They’re outclassed, and it shows in Nikolai Foster’s Chichester production.
Entering by what seems a back-door to the garden in Robert Jones’s set, their personalities are as pallid as the colours Howard Harrison’s lighting takes on when the rain falls. Between the final two acts, David Shrubsole’s score joins with the patterned lighting to create something like the disorienting fairy-world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, or Dear Brutus. No wonder full-colour, sunshine and birdsong return the moment the guests leave.
Yet Chichester’s four visitors make the running, thanks to some excellent performances. Natasha Walter’s Jackie creates a genuine sense of panicked inadequacy, contrasted by Caroline Langrishe’s assured suavity as Myra, who knows about the Blisses. There’s Guy Henry’s diplomat, reduced to create thinking-time by murmurs, drawn through surprise and politeness into Judith’s theatricality, and Edward Bennett with a well-behaved willingness that’s repeatedly thwarted by the Blisses, their barometer and hiccoughs.
Foster determinedly keeps the home-crowd this side excess, limiting the humorous flings their behaviour can invoke. But, inwardly-turned as they are, there’s no sense that even Laura Rogers’ Sorel, who claims she wants to more ordinary, will ever fall far from a family-tree that sways in the winds of temperamental self-gratification.
Sorel Bliss: Laura Rogers.
Simon Bliss: Sam Alexander.
Clara: Sue Wallace.
Judith Bliss: Diana Rigg.
David Bliss: Simon Williams.
Sandy Tyrrell: Edward Bennett.
Myra Arundel: Caroline Langrishe.
Richard Greatham: Guy Henry.
Jackie Coryton: Natalie Walter.
Director: Nikolai Foster.
Designer: Robert Jones.
Lighting: Howard Harrison.
Sound: Jonathan Suffolk.
Music: David Shrubsole.
Costume: Fotini Dimou.
Dialect coach: Sally Hague.
Assistant director: Joseph Boyle.
Assistant designer: Bec Chippendale.
2009-04-22 00:17:57