Review: Hay Fever ****

Now this is how a classic should be done.

Theatre is an arena dominated by middle-class, middle-aged white men, complained Nicholas Hytner last year. It also an arena in which women have to work twice as hard to grab fewer opportunities. And women actors of a certain age? Forget it. Bravo, therefore, to the Playhouse for staging this fantastic play that gives a rare chance for a more mature female actor to own the stage. And boy does Maggie Steed take advantage.

Noel Coward fell out of favour for a little while after the explosion of the kitchen sink dramas of the Fifties. It was only a revival of his work in the mid-Sixties that began to lead to a reappraisal of Coward. Ian Brown continues the tradition with this lively and hilarious production of one of Coward's best works. And, unlike in some cases, Brown makes the play startlingly relevant, making it feel fresh and light, despite the play now being over eight decades old.

Judith Bliss has retired to the countryside where she reminisces over old triumphs on the stage, acting out her great scenes with her strange, libertarian children.

Bored of the countryside and of both her children and her husband, she has invited a young admirer down for the weekend. Unfortunately so have the other three members of the Bliss clan.

The paper thin plot is bolstered by the wonderful writing and faultless performances all round. It is one of the best ensemble casts the Playhouse has had in some time. Maggie Steed takes the main role of Judith Bliss, but it says much about the performances of the cast around her that it does not feel like a star vehicle.