Author(s): COWARD NOEL

New Classics

'This much loved classic is published as a Methuen Modern play for the first time. First produced in 1925 Hay Fever is technically a masterpiece. A comedy of bad manners which starts with the arrival of four guests, invited independently by different members of the Bliss family for a weekend at their country house near Maidenhead. The promise of an idyllic and peaceful weekend is quickly trounced by the self-absorbed eccentricities of the family who leave the guests to slink away humiliated, embarrassed and abandoned. ''It does not date. it is in the highest mood of fantastic comedy, it is deliciously heartless and therefore deliciously alive and fresh'' The Times'