Bring the Tissue – Utah State Theatre Presents “Hay Fever”

“Hay Fever,” Noel Coward’s comedic tale of a family wrought with self-absorption and self-induced drama comes to the Morgan Theatre stage on the Utah State University campus Dec. 2-4 and 8-11. Utah State Theatre presents the tale at 7:30 p.m. nightly. Ticket information for the comedy is available at the Smith Spectrum Ticket Office, (435) 797-3036 or on the Web at www.usu.edu/theatre.

 

Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever” is a comedy of bad manners that starts with the arrival of four guests invited independently by different members of the Bliss family for a weekend at their country house. The guests are alternately amused, ignored, humiliated and ultimately abandoned to slink away by themselves during a blazing family row.

 

The Bliss family is artistic, arrogant and eccentric. David Bliss is a writer of bad novels, and his wife, Judith, an actress recently retired from the stage, lives life as though still performing in a badly written melodrama. Son Simon is a cartoonist and daughter Sorrel is ostensibly trying to escape her heritage of rudely anti-social behavior. When the weekend guests arrive, the bizarre household is exposed in all its glory and hypocrisy. The play concerns the way the guests are alternately amused, ignored and humiliated by a family rather more concerned with playing out its own fantasies than attending to the comfort of their guests.

           

Directing the UST production is Adrianne Moore, faculty member at Utah State. According to the director, the piece should bring out some laughter during the holiday season.

           

“I feel sure it will delight audiences,” Moore said. “It’s gorgeous to look at and hysterically funny, utilizing a verbal wit not common in contemporary plays. Although illustrative of the manners and preoccupations of the time, the humor has a very modern sensibility to it.”

           

Moore said that according to Coward’s autobiography, the idea for the play came from a weekend he spent with the Broadway star Laurette Taylor in 1921.

           

In the biography Coward writes, “On Sunday evenings we had cold supper and played games, often rather acrimonious games, owing to Laurette’s abrupt disapproval of any guest who turned out to be self-conscious, nervous or unable to act an adverb or an historical personage with proper abandon.”

           

Taylor denied any resemblance to her family upon seeing the show with the comment, “None of us is ever unintentionally rude.’”

           

The cast of “Hay Fever” consists entirely of Utah State Theatre performers. Judith Bliss, the dramatic leader of the house, is portrayed by Katie Ackerman with Jon McBride as David Bliss, the husband and unskilled writer. Mike Gardner plays Simon Bliss, the cartoonist, and Lindsay Boucher, as Sorell Bliss, is the family’s eccentric daughter. The Bliss household employs a maid (naturally one with her own ideas), Clara, who is played by Kajsa Nelson.

           

Richard Greatham (invited by Judith) is Jed Broberg, Sandy Tyrell (invited by Sorell) is Richie Call, Myra Arundel (invited by Simon) is Lori Wilkenson and Jackie Coryton (invited by David) is Lacey Jackson.

           

“The play is a wonderful example of a comedy of manners (in this case bad manners) from the roaring twenties,” said Moore. “It’s extremely well written, one of Noel Coward’s finest works, and you always want students to work with first-rate material. It provides an opportunity for acting students to explore working with the particular heightened acting style that this play demands. They need to internalize the manners and speech patterns of this giddy period between the wars.”

           

Ticket prices for the production of “Hay Fever” range from $6 to $9. For general inquiries, call (435) 797-1500 or email gordonj@hass.usu.edu. Please, no children under the age of 6.

           

Utah State Theatre’s 2005 spring schedule is also available. “Jacques Brel,” the musical production, runs Feb. 24-28 and March 2-5. The popular “One-Act Plays” take place March 23-26.