Hay Fever is a 1924 comedy of manners written by Noël Coward.
It's a typical weekend for the Bliss family. Aging actress Judith Bliss, her novelist husband David, adult children Sorel and Simon, and long-suffering maid Clara have spent a long hard week tearing out each others' throats and are looking forward to a nice few days of peace and quiet. There's just one problem: each of the Blisses has invited a guest to stay at their manor for the weekend, and neglected to tell the others.
This play provides examples of:
- Artistic License – Geography: In-universe with David's novel, which has its main character cross the Rue Saint-Honoré directly into the Place de la Concorde. It serves as the catalyst for their final argument, which is the last straw for their beleaguered guests.
- Chewing the Scenery: Judith is after all a retired stage diva. The end of act II is one big ham-fest for the entire Bliss family, set on by Judith. All the guests are bewildered witnesses to it.
- My Beloved Smother: Judith.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: In the final act, Jackie, Myra, Richard and Sandy have decided that enough is enough and that they're all going to leave the Bliss family forever in Sandy's car.
- Talk About the Weather: Richard and Jackie spend an Overly Long Gag alternating between this and awkward silence at the end of Act I.
