Reviews

In 2020, an extraordinary album of photographs was found of Noël Coward and his friends and lovers at his country retreat in Kent in 1931. Coward and cohort look relaxed and joyful, flamboyant and quite openly gay. But it was a life he could never have referenced in his public persona or his work, for obvious reasons. A core part of his very identity was illegal. Like writers in a repressive regime, Coward had to veil his reality without breaking social mores. This can be seen in Hay Fever, which Coward wrote with heterosexual couplings and a certain coyness.

It’s probably best to see the latest production at Flight Path Theatre with this warning in mind: nothing is going to happen. In four scenes the three middle-aged women, meeting in pairs, will not move from their coffee shop seats except to promise to meet again, soon, very soon. Nothing much happens, and yet it works powerfully.

Americans seem keen these days on adapting successful films (or film adaptations) into musicals with varying degrees of success. And this one has had a book, three film adaptations and now a musical – an interesting pedigree.

It is the unlikely – but fun – story of a mother and rebellious teenage daughter who magically swap bodies and have precisely one day to put things right – and work each other out – before Mum’s wedding day.

This very British play by Alan Ayckbourn is about as funny as you can get. Bordering on a farce, the play takes place simultaneously in the living rooms of the Foster and Phillips families somewhere in middle England.

The main protagonist is Frank Foster, a pompous windbag, who is the manager of an unnamed company. His posh wife Fiona is so totally bored by know-all Frank that she embarks on an affair with one of Frank’s employees, the rough and ready Bob Phillips.