Ingrid Allstrom
Staff Writer
Review
Main Street Theater's production of Hay Fever starts off with a bang, but ends with more of a sniffle. Noel Coward's comedy about the overly dramatic Bliss family never does really find its pace, and by the time the audience becomes a little interested in the characters, the play abruptly ends.
The premise of the play, which presumably takes place in the '20s, is that the four members of the Bliss family, each perfectly charming and reasonable by him- or herself, have invited someone to the family summer home for the weekend, unbeknownst to the others.
Judith (Charlene Hudgins), the mother, is a recently retired stage actress, and her husband David (John Kaiser) is a fiction writer. They live outside London in a modest, but certainly upper-class, home. The two grown children, Sorel and Simon (Kelli Cousins and Andrew Ruthven), seem perfectly pleasant outside the fact that neither is employed in any way.
The family squabbles as each finds out that the other has invited a guest, and the mother's over-dramatic nature (the main plot device) is quickly revealed and soon becomes tiresome. Whether it is the acting, the directing or the script, Judith Bliss soon becomes a nuisance.
The guests begin arriving amidst dialogue explaining to the audience that the family isn't terribly polite. This might easily have been written in for the American audience, who would very likely have no concept as to how one should host a weekend guest in early 20th-century England.
For Sorel, the daughter, there is Richard Greatham (Bryan Bounds), a diplomat who seems to ooze politeness from every pore. Judith has invited a young, dumb but good-looking fan, Sandy Tyrell (Niel Prunier). Simon has invited Myra Arundel (the convincingly seductive Karen Ross), a match for the entire family in beauty and in wit. David has invited the young, impressionable and painfully shy Jackie Coryton (Brooke Baumer), in order to "study her in a domestic environment" for his next book.
It becomes increasingly obvious that every member of the family is developing other motives when as soon as all the guests are assembled they begin to play a game of "musical partners" and trade with each other. This is the point when you might start to think you have this play figured out. They're all going to trade partners, catch each other in flagrate, blow up at one another and be done with it.
But no. That isn't not how it is going to work.
During the second act, there is much parading around and purposeful melodrama that seems to be an inside joke between the family.
It's hard to give a very concise description without giving too much away, but there are several instances of catching each other "in the act."
For instance, when Judith catches her daughter Sorel with her friend Sandy (apparently just kissing) she launches into a speech about growing older, and Sorel obliges with a reply about how she loves Sandy and wants to marry him.
As soon as Judith Bliss leaves the room, however, she explains to Sandy that it was all just a game. By the fourth time, it starts to get old.
Anyone who has ever had a boyfriend stolen by her mother, or whose family is so crazy it's contagious, will probably appreciate Hay Fever.
But even they will probably be about ready to leave two-thirds of the way through.
The scenic design (Shane Merchant) is sparse and aesthetically effective, suggesting a sprawling country home with only one room. The lighting creates spring relatively well, if unmemorably.
You can pick up tickets for your dose of MST's Hay Fever by calling (713)-524-6706 or by going by the box office at 4617 Montrose Blvd. in Chelsea Market.
Tickets are $12 to $17, and half-price tickets are available to students one hour prior to curtain. Performances are Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 4 p.m. through July 12.