One of Noel Coward’s best-loved comedies, Hayfever was written during the roaring 20s and exposes the eccentric Bliss family’s failings in their country house over one weekend, when each of the four members invites a guest. Farce at its best, the self-centred family don’t even realise their guests have decided to flee, so engrossed are they in their own quarrels. Coward wrote the play in three days after staying with a couple in New York, whose ‘over-the-top theatrical lifestyle’ inspired him.
Mary Wallace Theatre, Twickenham. richmondshakespeare.org.uk
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