Hay Fever – Keighley Playhouse

I DON’T think that I have enjoyed a night at the theatre as much as I did this Monday since... well, since I last trod the boards some five years ago.

Perhaps you can’t go wrong with a Noel Coward script, but the play still has to be acted and directed and this was as complete a production as you could see anywhere.

It was a real privilege for me to be at the Playhouse.

The play centres around the ghastly, dysfunctional Bliss family.

Father Bliss is, by his own admission, a hopeless author; his wife Judith is a fading actress and, their children are the spoilt brats that every modern parent dreads, but that seems to have been the norm back in the 1920s top

David Poole, Lorraine Taylor-Parker, Philip Gamble and Kathryn Mitchell played them with all the nuances, gestures, asides and intolerances that fitted their combined awfulness.

Each invites a guest for the weekend, and then completely ignores them.

The awkwardness was perfectly done, and the conversation about foreign visits between Richard Gardiner as Richard and Caroline Auty as Jackie had me nearly in tears with laughter.

The other guests played by Nick Turner and Jill Whitehouse were equally bemused in this weekend in hell, and the whole ensemble bounced off each other in a wonderfully convincing way.

I think Noel Coward would have enjoyed it as much as I did.

The maid’s part can often be a poisoned chalice, but not this maid. Brenda Thompson played the cockney Clara with a beautifully subtle humour which complemented the ‘posh’ parts beautifully.

I know director Robin Martin well enough to recognise his huge input into a fine production, evened off with a perfect set complete with a grand piano!

Treat yourselves to a night out at the Playhouse this week to see it!

• Until Saturday, call 07599 890769 to check ticket availability.

Martin Carr