Theatre UAB presents Noel Coward’s comedy “Hay Fever” from Feb. 20-24

Theatre UAB presents Noel Coward’s irreverent comedy “Hay Fever,” Feb. 20-24, at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Theatre UAB is the performance company of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Theatre.

“Hay Fever” was written in 1925, during a frivolous period of excess and denial nestled into a 10-year period between the horrors of World War I and the crushing economic realities of the Great Depression. Known as The Jazz Age, it was characterized by an opening up of social constraints, especially regarding the freedoms of women. Swinging music, wild parties, the dropping of traditional etiquette, living for the moment and blatant displays of social irreverence were commonplace in a period that used unselfconscious excess to blot out the atrocities of “The Great War,” says “Hay Fever” director Dennis McLernon.

The Bliss family is composed of matriarch Judith, a recently retired and publicly acclaimed stage actress; David, her husband, a well-known novelist; Simon, their son, an incorrigible and budding artist; and Sorel, their daughter, striving to rise above her bohemian family but always ready to play the game whenever it presents itself. Coward explored the traditions of family life and the social masks that accompany them and turned them upside down in “Hay Fever.”

“In highlighting the chaotic nature of the Bliss family, Coward incorporated the classic cornerstones of comedy: social disorder, incongruity, physical humor, witty dialogue, sexual innuendo, cross purposes and situational reversals,” McLernon said.

To bring this all to life, he constructed a very simple plot structure: Each member of the family has invited a guest up for the weekend, without informing the other members of the family. This immediately generates hurt feelings, over-dramatic reactions and raucous conflict, all of which the Bliss family appear to thrive upon.