One used to expect this Noël Coward classic to turn up at the end of a summer stock season. Some celebrity and her husband would be brought in for the show, the other parts taken by apprentices or junior members of the company wherever possible, with some local comedienne playing the maid. Those days have faded but the play has not. Coward's brittle comedies are now seen largely on community theater stages, despite the interest aroused by the erotically charged production of "Private Lives"(1934) a few years ago. However, "Hay Fever" (1925) was performed several seasons ago at Yale at the end of their season. A few other recent productions have darkened its action considerably, making the action something akin to Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf". The presentation of the play this month on the B.U. stage took the play on its own terms, much to the delight of substantial audiences.
Award-winning director Scott Edmiston, the assistant professor in charge of B.U.'s M.F.A. directing program and an Artistic Associate of the Huntington Theatre Company, enlisted the services of two prominent members of the Boston professional theatre community to head the Bliss family in this end of term production. Paula Plum, a B.U. School of Theatre cum laude '75 grad who added this year's IRNE Best Actress award to her list of honors, was a natural choice as Judith Bliss, a retired West-End star. Her husband, Richard Snee, who has appeared, as she has, on every major stage in town, and logged over 3000 appearances in "Shear Madness" over at the Charles Playhouse, was appropriate as David Bliss, a popular novelist.
The real center of the play, however, are the parts of the Bliss children which Coward wrote for himself and Gertrude Laurence. The author had recently risen to fame playing the dissolute young lead in his controversial drama, "The Vortex" (1924). Simon Bliss, a painter, has a lot in common with that anti-hero, though it's safe to laugh at his antics. In this production, since all the other seven roles were cast from graduating students, that part was taken by Michael Cohen, who had a minor role in HTC "The Blue Demon" earlier this season. The ambiguity of the role is reinforced by his weekend guest, a middle-aged vamp. His sister, Sorel Bliss, was played with panache by Jennifer Robinson, who held her own in scenes of intentional over-acting with Plum. The two siblings start the show with a scene which illumines the family's habitual self-absorption, anticipates the arrival of the outsiders each has invited to the country for the weekend, and sets up Judith's grand entrance from the garden. When their mother announced that she too has a guest coming, the duet became a three-way dance which only halted when their father came down to announce that he'd invited someone as well.
The first guest to arrive, by car, was a young admirer of Judith's, one Sandy Tyrell in plus-fours, played by Paul Cortez who seemed almost too young for the role, but was convincing enough in the face of Plum's advances. Next up was English-born B.U. teaching assistant Jane Bergeron as Myra Arundel, a stylish lady of uncertain years invited by Simon, but obviously more interested in his father. Her experienced style added greatly to scenes with both of them, not to mention social sniping between herself and Judith. The last two guests arrived together, having had to wait for a second run by the town's only cab which Myra had grabbed right off the train. Mehera Blum(Jackie Coryton) and Baron Vaughn(Richard Greatham) were a study in contrasts greater than the author intended. Blum, who also appeared in "The Blue Demon", played a timid Cockney flapper plainly out of her element. Vaughn, a slim Black actor headed for Williamstown this summer, played a convincing if somewhat too junior diplomat. The two managed to get laughs simply waiting to be noticed by someone in this eccentric household. Blum managed to keep up the comedy by being almost ready to burst into tears for the rest of the show. Vaughn was skillful enough, but not really a strong enough partner for his scenes with Plum.
Rounding out the ensemble was Kyle Cadotte as Clara, the only servant willing to stay with the Bliss menage. She'd been Judith's dresser, and obviously had none of the deference expected of her household station, plus excellent low-comic timing to boot. The whole piece is predicated after all on reversing social norms, summed up in John Lahr's capsule description of this play as "a comedy of bad manners." Actually, the script mixes the standard rep character relationships in a way which theatregoer and theatre-people of its day must have really enjoyed. The contrasts still resonate however. Simon, (the romantic lead), who invited Myra, (the other woman), for devious reasons winds up with Jackie (the soubrette), at least briefly. Sorel, (female romantic) who invited the Richard, the diplomat (the gent) in an attempt to be genteel, takes up with Sandy (the juvenile), her mother's beau. Judith (grande dame) has little luck seducing Richard, her daughter's guest, while David (the senior actor) and Myra understand each other too well to enjoy being frivolous. Everyone is on their worst behavior by the end of the piece when the guests sneak off unannounced in Sandy's car, having tipped the maid (female comic) a paltry few bob. The low comedian gets this show off, though he could always play the taxi driver as a mute.
Such farcical shenannigans would not be as enjoyable in a mundane setting. M.F.A. Candidate Christine Tedesco's elegant great hall for the family manor was quite up to the standard expected from B.U.s program and shop, even without a rake. Costumer Jessi Nolet's costumes, especially period dresses for all the women, had wonderful movement, an absolute requirement for farce. Sound and lights do their part as well, not to mention the extensive work by the prop department. The Huntington audience was ready for a show like this; the setting with Simon and Sorel posed center stage got justified applause on curtain up. Two brief musical interludes were added, a reprise of Coward's signature "Talent to Amuse" in Act II for Plum wooing Vaughn, who was convincing at the keyboard, and a closing quartet for the Bliss family, "Play, Orchestra, Play", from one of the author's reviews after Judith's famous curtain line, "I'm going back onto the stage "--which of course as the play demonstrates she never left.
Quality productions such as this have a welcome place alongside the professional offerings from University-sponsored theatre companies. Having young actors doing substantial roles opposite experienced players was the tried-and-true system over the ages. In the past few years hereabouts there's been a lot of spearcarrying by the students, but very little worthwhile public acting opportunities at both the Huntington and the ART. Observing even from onstage is no real preparation for mainstage playing. It will be interesting to see what develops as BU and the Huntington get additional mid-sized professional stages, and the ART finds its new footing.