Photography by Marc Brenner

Sometimes we go to check out a play and it takes us by surprise, while other times a show gives us exactly what we were expecting. This revival of Noel Coward’s Hay Fever – first performed on the West End just over a hundred years ago – falls firmly in the latter category. It’s the theatre equivalent of comfort viewing, like a series you’d pop on for an evening of easy entertainment. It’s lighthearted froth, and feels incredibly traditional: the set, costumes and performance style probably not too dissimilar from the 1925 Ambassador’s Theatre production directed by Coward himself.

That’s no bad thing – Hay Fever has been enduringly popular for over a century and there’s a good reason for that. Coward’s witty, high-camp writing style means this play is full of humorous one-liners, ridiculously overblown speeches and withering putdowns that still raise a chuckle to this day. It’s not at all realistic – these are caricatures of the most ridiculous types of people – but that’s all part of the fun.