Theater Review—

Sherman’s Comedy Of Bad Manners Is Utterly Entertaining

By Julie Stern

SHERMAN — Jane Farnol is a_professionally-trained actress (Britain’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) with plenty of New York stage and television credits to her name, as well as various acting and directing stints locally, at Sherman Playhouse and TheatreWorks New Milford. To the area’s good fortune, Ms Farnol is currently directing one of Noel Coward’s earliest — and most often revived — comedies, Hay Fever, for the Sherman company.

Based on the young Coward’s experiences in America, as a guest of the famous actress Laurette Taylor, who insisted on making her houseguests participate in complicated and highly competitive party games, Hay Fever is set in the English countryside, in the form of a sort of weekend-from-hell: The mildly eccentric family of a recently retired actress, including her novelist-husband and their grown son and daughter, have, unbeknownst to each other, have all invited  special houseguests.

The mother has asked a young man with a crush on her, the daughter has asked a diplomat she met at a party, the son has invited a young woman from London, and the father has invited a girl he feels will be able to provide him with character background for his next book.

Each of the visitors expected to be the only weekend guest, and the object of special attention from the one who had invited them. Once admitted by the muttering housekeeper, drolly portrayed by Sheila Echevarria, they can’t make sense of the rules of this peculiar household, where the occupants by turns insult and ignore them, seduce them, and demand that they participate in obscure but shrilly argumentative word games.

The genius of the play lies in its portrayal of two very different quartets of characters — the four dazed and confused visitors, who gravitate to each other in their palpable unease,  and the blithely unconcerned family members, who play off their mother’s theatrical grandiosity, re-enacting scenes from her most melodramatic successes, teasing each other and mocking themselves.

Sally Gundy handles the pivotal role of the mother, Judith Bliss, with the sweep of a Maggie Smith. With John Taylor as her husband, and Joanna Dumitrascu and Daniel Barr as their children, the four actors form a compelling ensemble. They tease, they needle, they challenge each other, but it is clear that beneath it all they are a family unit and it’s impossible to not like them.

By contrast, Scott Nelson, Vicki J. Haag,  John A. Stewart, II and Danielle  Douchkoff also win sympathy for their growing discomfort. Anyone who has ever been at a party and felt completely at a loss can identify with this group.

However, what these actors also convey is their essentially stuffy and limited personalities. In the end, when they tiptoe out the door with their bags in hand, the audience is are happy to be left with the Bliss family.

Under Ms Farnol’s skilled direction, this play captures a time, a place, and a way of life in which wit and cleverness outweigh dignity and correctness. Fast paced and entertaining, this is a comedy of bad manners which is thoroughly enjoyable, so long as you aren’t trapped in the house as a weekend guest.

 (Performances of Hay Fever continue on weekends through October 20. This production has an 8 pm curtain on Friday and Saturday evenings. There is one matinee scheduled, for Sunday, October 14, at 2 pm. Tickets are $14 for adults, $12 students and seniors, and can be reserved at 860-355-3622.)