Synopsis
Programme
Impressions/Performances
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." So said Jaques in a monologue from William Shakespeare's "As You Like It." It might very well have been the dysfunctional Bliss family's family motto, since they live their lives as though they were playing out one big drama where the fluid plot is constantly changing - slipping seamlessly from reality to fantasy and back again at the drop of a hat. It is a lifestyle that is very much driven by the family's histrionic matriarch, Judith Bliss, a retired actress in mourning for her former stage-career - while behaving as if the world still hung on her every word and ready to slip into one of her former characters at any moment. Her two irrepressible, almost grown-up children have inherited their mother's penchant for histrionics, and even their less demonstrative father, David, has become immersed in the game. Between themselves, they slip in and out of their shared fantasies so easily and so comfortably that the margin between what is real and what is imagined no longer has the slightest relevance. For outsiders, however, it is a different story, as the Bliss's constant bickering and bizarre behaviour - in which they treat their weekend guests as little more than a set of pawns in a private game of charades played out between themselves - keep them in a state of unremitting consternation, caught up in events that seem to spiral horribly out of their control. They find themselves helpless in the care of a family who are vain, selfish, and rude in the extreme. And because each of the family members have invited their respective guests unilaterally, much to the chagrin of the others, as each guest arrives at the door they are met with staggeringly rude displays of indifference. It could be callous, were it not for the fact that the Bliss's are simply so completely self-obsessed, and so totally caught up in their own petty tantrums and rivalries, as to be Blissfully unaware of, let alone care about, the effects their machinations may be having on the discomfiture of their guests.
Coward famously penned "Hay Fever," arguably his most popular play, in one three day sitting in 1924. It was inspired by weekends Coward had spent with the eccentric family of the American silent movie star Laurette Taylor - a family whose inattentive rudeness towards their guests was legendary. Coward then called upon his associations with the hedonistic scene that was then burgeoning in London to transfer the setting and make it a very English comedy. The result is a crafty comedy of (apallingly bad) manners, liberally sprinkled with elements of high farce. But what makes the play unusual is that it relies almost entirely upon it's characterisations and clever interactions, rather than its lighweight plot or even any particularly witty dialogue, for it's success. Because of that, in order for the play to work at all, it requires character actors of extraordinary ability to play the various protagonists, posing a particular problem for casting directors - in this case Siobhan Bracke who could hardly have put together a better team.
Leading the way was Maggie Steed as the gravel voiced, tousled haired family matriarch, Judith Bliss. An imperious theatrical prima donna, living for the adulation of others whilst utterly incapable of returning any such consideration, she is a woman inhabiting a peculiar world half-way between her glorious past and a largely imaginarypresent. No wonder her children, who drift in and out of that world with her, are so socially inept. Steed is tremendous in the part, one moment her face and eyes totally vacant as her character strays from reality, and the next delivering deadly one line put-downs in a voice that could fracture concrete. Martin Turner is excellent as her laconic husband, David - unattentive but seeming at first to be very straight-laced, it soon transpires that he is, in fact, as loopy as the rest of them. Alice Haig is delightful as the spirited Sorel, the only one in the family who has any awareness of the oddity of their behaviour but unable to change even her own part in it. Fickle, flighty, and unashamedly outspoken, she is seemingly infatuated with the staid 'diplomatist' Richard Greatham (Philip Bretherton, a master of telling facial expression) - perhaps because he represents the kind of conventionality that she secretly craves - but soon turns her amorous (but strictly non-comittal) attentions upon her mother's young admirer, Sandy Tyrell (Matthew Douglas), instead. Her love/hate relationship with her brother Simon (Michael Benz) is incredibly close yet tremendously explosive. When the situation warrants they are quick to close up and draw tremendous support from one another, but at other times they seem to infuriate each other and can't resist sparring. Emily Bowker is tremendously sympathetic as the timid little mouse-like Jackie Coryton. Her tentative efforts to draw attention when she is overlooked for afternoon tea, and fit of hysterics when she is pressed to participate in a goofy acting game are both touching and hilarious. Shy and insecure, she would have been out of her depth even among a more conventional assembly of strangers - but at the mercy of the Bliss's she stood no chance. But then even the sophisticated, predatory vamp Myra (glamorously portrayed by Emma Amos) - a woman who, according to Judith, "uses sex like a shrimping net" - has met her match in this company. Even the maid, Clara (Connie Walker), Judith's former dresser, is as rude and dysfunctional as the family she serves.
The direction carries the action along at a brisk pace whilst keeping the actors reigned-in as they maneuvre flawlessy through the improbable situations called for by the plot. The long and deep set is a beautifully rendered imitation of a country house living room, richly furnished and overtopped by a giant panel of flowers. Two intervals was a seemingly unecessary nuisance, but other than that it is all supremely well done so that, despite the seeming improbability of the situations we are witnessing, it is tremendously engrossing and highly entertaining.
Verdict
A tremendous evening of scintillating and sophisticated entertainment.
Don Gillan - www.stagebeauty.net