First Play: Hay Fever

Today... it rained. And rained and rained. Thus, I did not feel much inclined to do much of anything, though I did venture out with our group to see Noel Coward's Hay Fever presented in the Noel Coward Theatre. Fitting, don't you think?

When I walked inside, I was struck by the ornate plush opulence. According to Wikipedia, the theatre opened in 1903 as the New Theatre, built in the classical style.

It underwent major refurbishment in 2006, and was renamed the Noël Coward Theatre when it re-opened for the London premiere of Avenue Q on 1 June 2006. Noël Coward, one of Britain's greatest playwrights and actors, appeared in his own play, I'll Leave It To You, at the then New Theatre in 1920, the first West End production of one of his plays.

(pictures by Kenzie Ottley--I didn't have my camera yet again. :P)

Oooh.

Aaah.

The play was really good. As some of my classmates remarked in class the other day, nothing really happens, but it sure is funny. This rather eccentric Bliss family wreaks havoc on a houseful of weekend guests with their theatrical idiosyncrasies. They are definitely bohemian--"person[s] with artistic or intellectual tendencies, who live and act with no regard for conventional rules of behavior" (American College Dictionary)--and yet there's something intriguing about their strange family dynamic. They're all, well, a little crazy, and the way they interact drives their guests up the wall, but they're still a family. My family isn't quite so crazy, but we do have our ways, and I hope guests find our house, shall we say, a little more blissful than Blissful.