author: Leonard Taube
Feeling a little tickle in your throat of late? Perhaps your eyes are watering a bit too much, or else you find yourself prone to attacks of unending sneezing. Good chance you have a bit of hay fever acting up. Doctor’s orders? Purchase tickets to see Cockpit in Court’s (in residence at CCBC Essex, The Robert & Eleanor Romadka College Center Cabaret Theatre) production of Noel Coward’s 1924 comedy Hay Fever.
A comedy of manners (with a touch of high farce thrown in for good measure), Hay Fever is set in June in the English country home (in Cookham, Berkshire by the River Thames) of the Bliss family in the 1920’s and deals with four eccentric family members and their outlandish behavior when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend, ignorant that all the others have done the same without telling the rest of the family. While Bliss is the family surname, it would appear to the untrained eye (or guest) that their existence is anything but, which is why I adore Coward’s choice of names. The show opened on June 18, 1925, and ran for 337 performances.
Directed by Thomas C. “Toby” Hessenauer, this play is a classic from a bygone era, rarely done these days. It is an interesting choice of plays, and I for one am glad for the revival. While not outwardly side-splittingly funny, it’s classic old British drawing room humor, at times dry, at times farcical but always witty with often just a remark causing laughter. Hessenauer cast the show well with a team well suited to the task of bringing Coward’s play to life. British accents were a bit uneven, and there was some stumbling of lines, but that’s just picking nits. He did a great job at finding the comedy and pushing it to the surface, directing the actors to deliver their lines in such a way as to play up the melodramatic insanity that is at the very core of Bliss life.
Set Designer Dan Morelli outfitted the cabaret-style “theatre-in-the-round” set simply but effectively. French doors access the gardens to one end, a staircase heading upstairs and door heading into the kitchen flank the other, the front door to the home on anther end and a door leading to the library completes the 4-corner doors set. In the middle there is a chaise lounge front and center with a liquor table to one end. Chairs along the perimeter complete the Bliss living room. Properties Manager Cathy Kratovil brings some very period style liquor bottles/glasses and a pretty vase as well as a complete tea/coffee set. Lighting Designer Aaron Adams lights the stage well for this space and there were no notable tech issues that could be discerned. Costume designer Tammy Oppel outdid herself, especially in Act 2. The brilliant costumes all screamed “1920’s Cocktail Party”! Oppel kept everything period in all 3 acts.
Matriarch of the Bliss family is Judith Bliss (played by Dyana Neal). Neal has a host of credits to her name, but for those classical music enthusiasts amongst us, her voice has been heard since 1993 on 91.5 (WBJC-FM), Baltimore’s classical music station, as a DJ. Neal is magnificently self-centered, theatrical and melodramatic to a fault. She effortlessly flits around the room while delivering her zingers of lines, a memorization feat for sure. Bliss is a former actress, toying with returning to the stage. After spending an afternoon watching her, one can’t help but wonder if she ever left the stage. It’s as if her life is one great play with no ending. Neal, no stranger to the stage, perfectly channels the former actress with a dominating presence overshadowing everything and dictating much of the play’s action. Neal knows how to conjure excitement from the mundane. Watch her scene with Richard Greatham towards the end.
Simon Bliss (Judith’s son) is played by Theo Scully. Equally dramatic, flamboyant and with a lot of sass to give, Scully is a whirlwind of emotive energy, whether arguing with his mother/sister/father, chasing after Myra (more on her later) or just plain old lamenting. He has no yearning to reform his family’s unconventional behavior (unlike his sister) and it’s a delight to watch Scully vacillate between extremes, one moment passionately fawning over Myra and the next captivating the innocent Jackie. Scully does a good job embracing his mother’s penchant for melodrama. You can tell he’s a Bliss member through and through.
Sorel Bliss (Judith’s daughter), played by Morgan Wenerick, is a tour de force of electricity, keeping up bantering pace with her family members, acting out scenes of plays or, like her brother, simply lamenting about everything in her life. Wenerick squeals and yells her way through most of her dialogue so frenetically that it’s hard to keep up sometimes, yet she does so in such a controlled manner, never missing a beat, that one can’t help but just shake their head and wonder what she had for breakfast that morning. Controlled mental chaos comes to mind. However, Wenerick is channeling something much deeper. Her character is attempting to break free from her family’s theatrics, yet despite such intentions she remains truly a Bliss.
The patriarch of the family, David Bliss (played by John Dignam) is an author who spends most of his time upstairs writing. At first one might get the impression that he’s different than the rest of the family, keeping his distance from the lunacy that is unfolding downstairs, but soon he appears to join right in, and you realize that he, too, is just as zany as the rest of them what with his self-absorbed, unconventional and forgetful nature. Dignam plays the part in such a controlled manner that he keeps the audience on its toes, speculating his next move. Watch his scene with Myra.
Clara, Judith’s former dresser (when she was in the theatre) and now her family’s domestic is played with comedic flare by Sam David. Whether flouncing in/out to open the front door (carrying various and sundry items each time), delivering biting one-liners about the family and her existence, to an amusing setting of the breakfast service complete with some fancy footwork and singing (to allow the cast time to change costumes), you can tell she’s not of Bliss blood. But her indifference as the now overburdened soul managing the household chaos single-handedly (the maid has a toothache) is so comedically ingrained that one gets the impression that she’s been around Judith and the family for so long that she’s just used to the shenanigans and simply goes along with the deal, retreating into her kitchen when things get too out of control.
The invited weekend guests are quite an eclectic bunch in and of themselves but quickly find that things are not as they seem and get caught up in the zaniness in all things Bliss, which makes for some devilishly good comedy. Add in the fact that each of the family members has invited a guest without telling the others and are put off by the fact that the others have done the same, and you have a hypocritical situation of grand proportions that will have you laughing out loud.
Sandy Tyrell (played by Matthew L. Payne) is an amateur boxer and enduring fan of Judith’s whom she has invited. Judith invites him to feed her own ego (as she says, Sandy is “a perfect darling and madly in love with me”). Tall, handsome and athletic, he portrays the enamored fan with a plomb, and his exasperated disillusionment upon learning of Judith’s husband’s existence is well played. Payne not only has great acting chops, with catchy line delivery and forceful stage presence, but has some great physicality as well, whether it’s slinking down the staircase, shadow boxing or bounding out of the library. Oh, the library. You’ll understand when you see the show.
Richard Greatham (played by Ted Burke) is a diplomat invited by Sorel who met him at a party. Burke plays the courteous conventionally mannered diplomat with kind sedation, and you can’t help but like the guy. He is clearly captivated by the Bliss family’s theatrical lifestyle, a stark comparison to what he is used to, until he finds himself stunned towards the end. This slow yet methodical unraveling is something which Burke does very well, trying his best to remain a consummate diplomat who is being sucked into the world of outlandish behavior.
Myra Arundel (played by Sarah Ford) is an impeccably attired lady who is invited by Simon. Ford brings Myra to life with a sense of self-assured sophistication although Judith describes her as “a self-conscious vampire who wields sex as a shrimping net”. Gotta love Noel Coward’s turn of phrase. It’s so much fun to watch Ford embody the character so well, dissolving over time (as do the other guests) as she finds herself caught up in her own disillusioned story line. No spoiler here, but suffice it to say that, while Simon’s admiration is a drawing allure, she has an ulterior motive for accepting his invitation. There is a hysterical interaction between Myra and David towards the end. Watch for it, and for Judith’s reaction. Ford’s delivery of one of my favorite lines towards the show’s close, a scathing critique of the Blisses, is fiery, on point and bespeaks of the vexed emotion that she is so good at playing. They say a watched pot never boils, but Ford’s pot does…and it’s well worth watching.
Rounding out the guest list is Jackie Coryton (played by Regina Rose), a shy woman who is described as a “perfectly sweet flapper”. David has invited her to “study her a little in domestic surroundings”. Rose is perfect as the small, ill-at-ease, naïve, awkward flapper who fumbles her way through conversations. My favorite moment, however, is towards the show’s end when a certain situation (again, no spoilers here) leaves her distraught, teary, and conceding that the Blisses are “all mad”. Rose is a seasoned character actress who draws you in with her good-natured shyness from the start and watching how she reacts to the antics set before her is guaranteed to generate some laughter.
One household. One theatrical family. Four invited guests. A classic Noel Coward script. Grab your Claritin and come spend an afternoon with the Bliss family. You’ll be glad you did. What more could you ask for except sanity?
Running Time: Approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes with one intermission
Hay Fever plays through August 3rd 2025 with Cockpit in Court in the upstairs Cabaret Space of The Robert and Eleanor Romadka College Center at the Community College of Baltimore County Essex Campus— 7201 Rossville Boulevard, Essex MD. For tickets call the box office at (443) 840-2787 or purchase them online.