09 Noël Coward Hay Fever

SANWAL

09 Noël Coward Hay Fever 1992 Saturday Playhouse: Hay Fever Sat 14th Nov 1992, 14:30 on BBC Radio 4 FM A summer comedy Noël Coward's Hay Fever introduces us to one family whose highly dysfunctional interplay transforms a relaxing weekend into a maddening game of one-upmanship. The Bliss family are ultra-bohemian and have "weekends". This time they have each invited a guest without telling one another.   Result: mayhem! With an introduction by Sheridan Morley. Director: Leslie Lawton Judith Bliss: Judi Dench David Bliss: Michael Williams Richard Greatham: Geofrey Palmer Myra Arundel: Celia Imrie Jackie Coryton: Patricia Brake Sandy Tyrell: Christopher Blake Simon Bliss: Patrick Pearson Sorel Bliss: Alison Reid Clara: Patricia Hayes Written in 1924 and first produced in 1925 'Hay Fever' is a comedy of bad manners. The play begins at the country home (near Maidenhead) of the Bliss family: Judith Bliss (a retired stage actress), her husband David (a writer of romance novels) and their two grown children Simon and Sorel. The room is very comfortable and very untidy. And so are the Blisses for each of them has invited a guest (of the opposite sex!) for the weekend without informing the others, but no one seems to have considered what they will all eat or where they will all sleep. The promise of an idyllic and peaceful weekend is quickly trounced by the self-absorbed eccentricities of the family who leave the guests to slink away humiliated, embarrassed and abandoned.

This recording is part of the Old Time Radio collection.