HAY FEVER is a play written by Noel Coward in the 1920s in which he based his lead character, the flamboyant actress Judith Bliss, on the flamboyant actress Laurette Taylor. The play was successfully launched in London and New York in the mid-1920s and revived again in the 1930s. Usually considered minor Coward, the play has gained steam as the decades have passed until it is now considered one of his best plays. Oddly, no major films have ever been produced. There were a few minor British TV productions in the 1930s and 40s, That being said, a wondrous British TV movie was made in 1984 (still the only filmed production) starring Penelope Keith as the maddening Judith Bliss, a great actress who bemoans aging and is rusticating at her country home with her equally maddening family: her husband novelist and her two grown children. It seems that each has invited a guest for the weekend without telling anyone else. Of course each guest proves to be unsuitable and the weekend goes terribly wrong, reducing the family to endless-yet-witty squabbling. The parlor game they play is very funny.
Keith is center stage as the actress who is likely, at the drop of a hat, to break into a scene from some play. Keith is a master at playing the quicksilver character who can turn from drama to comedy in a tick.
Excellent set opens the "drawing room" comedy, and the costumes are first rate. Keith's gold gown is mesmerizing.
Keith had starred in a West End production, on which this TV version is based. Lots of familiar faces among the co-stars include Paul Eddington, Patricia Hodge, Joan Sims, Benjamin Whitrow, Susan Wooldridge, Phoebe Nicholls, Michael Siberry, and Michael Cochrane.
