Hay Fever - A light comedy

Noel Coward himself wrote, "'Hay Fever' is considered by many to be my best comedy" and "far and away one of the most difficult plays to perform that I have ever encountered. To begin with, it has no plot at all, and remarkably little action. Its general effectiveness therefore depends upon expert technique from each and every member of the cast ... The Press naturally and inevitably described it as 'thin', 'tenuous' and 'trvial' because these are their stock phrases for anything later in date and lighter in texture than 'The Way of the World', and it ran, tenuously and triumphantly, for a year."

This edition of 'Hay Fever' is a facsimile of the original 1925 publication with a new introduction and chronology as well as notes on subsequent slight variations in the text. It is published to coincide with a new 1983 production, the first full-scale London revival since Coward himself directed the play for the National Theatre in 1964. - [notes for the 1983 edition]

"It does not date….it is deliciously alive and fresh"
- The Times