Hay Fever - Definition and Overview

Hay Fever is a comic play written by Noel Coward in 1924 and first produced in 1925. Best described as a cross between high farce and a comedy of manners, the play is set in a British country house in the 1920s, and deals with the four eccentric members of the Bliss family and their outlandish behaviour when they each invite a guest to spend the weekend. Following on from the success of his earlier play The Vortex, Hay Fever was an enormous hit on the West End stage and has been revived countless times around the world since then. It was the 1966 Royal National Theatre production of Hay Fever, starring Maggie Smith and Edith Evans with Coward himself directing, which sparked the revival of interest in his work toward the end of his life.