Hay Fever (Modern Classics)

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The Bliss family are ultra-bohemian and have "weekends". This time they have each invited a guest without telling one another. Result: mayhem! For the midsummer madness to have an impact, we need to have a contrasting sense of normality, an aspect underplayed in Dominic Hill’s Lyceum/Citizens co-production. Every time Charlie Archer’s Simon and Rosemary Boyle’s Sorel explain what an unconventional family they have, it feels like being told: “You don’t have to be mad to work here but it helps.” Without a clear idea of the conventions they’re breaking, we only have their word for it that their manner is untoward. Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16 December 1899–26 March 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise". [1] Evangeline Julia Marshall, eccentric society hostess (1854–1944), married Clement Paston Astley Cooper, grandson of Sir Astley Paston Cooper, on 10 July 1877. She inherited Hambleton Hall from her brother Walter Marshall on his death in 1899, and there she entertained rising talents in the artistic world, including, in addition to Coward, the painter Philip Streatfeild, [4] the conductor Malcolm Sargent, [5] and the writer Charles Scott Moncrieff, who dedicated his translation of Proust's Swann's Way to her. [6] When staying with the Astley Coopers, Coward kept careful notes of what his hostess said and how she said it, and much of the dialogue for Hay Fever (and other early Coward plays) appears to be derived directly from these notes. [7] She said she went to his plays "because it amuses me to hear my remarks put into the mouths of actors". [8] Hay Fever", Daily News, 9 June 1925, p. 4; and "At The Ambassadors", The Tatler, 1 July 1925, p. 20

a b Hastings, Chris. "Winston Churchill vetoed Coward knighthood", Telegraph.co.uk, 3 November 2007, accessed 4 January 2009

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Aside from Dench, Peter Bowles as Judith's novelist husband best catches the acidulous tone of Coward's comedy of bad manners. Bowles looks like a cat who has swallowed several dishes of cream and exudes the vanity of a man who knows he's a second-rater and can get away with it. Even if Coward's misogyny emerges in a scene where the novelist toys with Myra, Bowles hits just the right note of armour-plated insouciance. In fact, some of his greatest achievements lay in the stories he told during the conflict. Coward penned the script for one of the most moving films ever made, Brief Encounter; scripted, co-directed and starred in the earnestly patriotic megahit In Which We Serve, and wrote one of his most enduring stage comedies, Blithe Spirit, about a writer plagued by ghosts of his dead wives. Magill, Frank (ed.). Magill's Literary Annual, 1997. Vol.2. Pasadena: Salem Press. ISBN 978-0-89356-297-7.The Savoy Theatre", The Times, 26 June 1912, p. 10; "The Coliseum", 29 October 1912, p. 8; and "Varieties etc", 18 November 1912, p. 1 When a peer of the realm plans to marry a Hollywood film star, his family are less than enthusiastic. But why should his mother's personal maid be even more implacably opposed to the wedding than his own flesh and blood? Coward also said, "I keep an open mind, but I will be somewhat surprised if St Peter taps me on the shoulder and says: 'This way, Noël Coward, come up and try your hand on the harp.' I am no harpist." [149] Thorpe, Vanessa. "Coward's long-lost satire was almost too 'daring' about women", The Observer, 16 September 2007, accessed 22 September 2016 Coward spelled his first name with the diæresis (" I didn't put the dots over the 'e' in Noël. The language did. Otherwise it's not Noël but Nool!"). [150] The press and many book publishers failed to follow suit, and his name was printed as 'Noel' in The Times, The Observer and other contemporary newspapers and books. [n 12] Public image [ edit ] The Coward image: with cigarette holder in 1930

a b c Rebellato, Dan. "Coward, Noël", The Oxford Encyclopedia of Theatre and Performance, Oxford University Press, 2005. Retrieved 5 April 2020 (subscription required) Gilbert, Jenny. " Hay Fever, Duke of York's Theatre", The Arts Desk, 12 May 2015; and " Hay Fever starring Felicity Kendal transfers to West End", WhatsOnStage, 15 January 2015 With Ace of Clubs (1949) Coward sought to be up-to-date, with the setting of a contemporary Soho nightclub. It did better than its three predecessors, running for 211 performances, but Coward wrote, "I am furious about Ace of Clubs not being a real smash and I have come to the conclusion that if they don't care for first rate music, lyrics, dialogue and performance they can stuff it up their collective arses and go and see [Ivor Novello's] King's Rhapsody". [177] He reverted, without success, to a romantic historical setting for After the Ball (1954 – 188 performances). His last two musicals were premiered on Broadway rather than in London. Sail Away (1961) with a setting on a modern cruise ship ran for 167 performances in New York and then 252 in London. [178] For his last and least successful musical, Coward reverted to Ruritanian royalty in The Girl Who Came to Supper (1963), which closed after 112 performances in New York and has never been staged in London. [179] Barbey D'Aurevilly, Jules (2002) [1845]. Who's a Dandy? – Dandyism and Beau Brummell. George Walden (trans. and ed. of new edition). London: Gibson Square. ISBN 978-1-903933-18-3. refuse entry of and use on the premises of any camera or any from of audio or visual recording equipmentThe action is set in the Hall of David Bliss's house at Cookham, Berkshire, by the River Thames. [19] Act I [ edit ] A Saturday afternoon in June Judith Bliss ( Marie Tempest) strikes a pose, 1925 Access to customer information is strictly controlled. The system can only be accessed by The Mill at Sonning staff who need it to do their job and deal with the customers needs. All staff required to adhere to current data protection legislations in line with The Mill at Sonning’s data protection policy and are subject to a duty of confidentiality. Coward, Noël (1998). Barry Day (ed.). Coward: The Complete Lyrics. London: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-413-73230-9. Coward's music, writings, characteristic voice and style have been widely parodied and imitated, for instance in Monty Python, [196] Round the Horne, [197] and Privates on Parade. [198] Coward has frequently been depicted as a character in plays, [199] [200] films, television and radio shows, for example, in the 1968 Julie Andrews film Star! (in which Coward was portrayed by his godson, Daniel Massey), [201] the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart [202] and a BBC Radio 4 series written by Marcy Kahan in which Coward was dramatised as a detective in Design For Murder (2000), A Bullet at Balmain's (2003) and Death at the Desert Inn (2005), and as a spy in Blithe Spy (2002) and Our Man In Jamaica (2007), with Malcolm Sinclair playing Coward in each. [203] On stage, characters based on Coward have included Beverly Carlton in the 1939 Broadway play The Man Who Came to Dinner. [204] A play about the friendship between Coward and Dietrich, called Lunch with Marlene, by Chris Burgess, ran at the New End Theatre in 2008. The second act presents a musical revue, including Coward songs such as "Don't Let's Be Beastly to the Germans". [205] In 1914, when Coward was fourteen, he became the protégé and probably the lover of Philip Streatfeild, a society painter. [18] Streatfeild introduced him to Mrs Astley Cooper and her high society friends. [n 2] Streatfeild died from tuberculosis in 1915, but Mrs Astley Cooper continued to encourage her late friend's protégé, who remained a frequent guest at her estate, Hambleton Hall in Rutland. [20]