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Noël Coward’s “Hay Fever” is like champagne bubbles—light, airy and perfect for the close of Hampton Theatre Company’s 30th anniversary season, according to director Diana Marbury.
“We like to have a comedy at the end of our season. That’s generally what we do,” she said. “Everybody’s looking forward to their summer, and people like to have a little fun and laugh, and we like to provide that. And this is just a beautiful-looking show with period costuming. It’s just really lovely to clear out the winter doldrums. Hopefully, we go out with a bang.”
Written by a 25-year-old Mr. Coward in 1924—and first produced in 1925, with Marie Tempest starring as the first Judith Bliss—the play is a cross between a high farce and a comedy of manners revolving around the self-centered Bliss family and the four guests invited to stay at their English country home.
“Noël Coward was so prolific, and he just had a knack for the human condition, really,” Ms. Marbury said. “Though it’s a period piece, and British, it is like people are today. It’s so timeless. Well, hopefully, they’re not as bad-mannered as the Bliss family, but there are definitely a lot of people just like that out there today.”
This is the second period piece Ms. Marbury directed this season—the fall opened with Mary Chase’s 1944 comedy, “Harvey”—and while she enjoys stepping into the past, she already has her sights set on the 31st season’s finale, which she would not divulge, other than to say, “It’s very exciting and a wonderful new comedy.”
“I’m hopeful I’ll direct it,” she said. “But, either way, it is all about people, and I love working with people and studying characters for plays. It’s very thrilling. It gives you a whole different science, you know?
“I remember, as a young actor, studying, sitting on the subway many a time just watching behavior and really enjoying learning about people and how they behave and their movement. It’s really come in handy.”
Hampton Theatre Company will open Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever” on Thursday, May 21, at 7 p.m. at Quogue Community Hall. Additional performances will be held Fridays at 7 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2:30 p.m., through June 7. Tickets are $25, $23 for seniors, and $10 for students age 21 and under. For more information, call (631) 653-8955, or visit hamptontheatre.org.
on May 19, 2015