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 Chemainus get's Hay Fever
By Sarah Buck
A comedy of manners by definition involves social blunders and outrageous faux pas. But it's not that the Bliss family is rude, says Bernard Cuffling, director of Noel Coward's 1925 play Hay Fever, currently in rehearsal at the Chemainus Theatre. It's more they're unhinged and very theatrical, said Cuffling graciously. The audience will likely forgive them too: The nine characters in this drawing room comedy, down to the Bliss family's maid, are charming despite their proclivity to say and do exactly as they please, said Cuffling. "You don't dislike these people - you understand them," said Cuffling. Little did the Bliss' weekend guests know what they were in for when they accepted an invitation to spend the weekend at the "absolutely potty" family's English countryside house. "They've come down expecting everything to be perfect. Nothing of that happens at all." A Vancouver-based stage, television and film actor, Cuffling is fresh from playing Clarence the angel in the Arts Club Theatre's production of It's a Wonderful Life. He's no stranger to Chemainus, having trod the boards in the CT production of last season's The Perfect Wife and in You Never Can Tell, Queen Milli of Gault, and An Inspector Calls. His Chemainus directorial credits include The Importance of Being Earnest and Charley's Aunt. Cuffling's no stranger to Hay Fever either: As a young man, he saw a 1964 production of Hay Fever at London's Old Vic with the legendary Maggie Smith as guest Maya Arundel. "I fell in love with comedy then and that love affair has stayed with me!" he writes in his director's notes. At that time Coward's work was experiencing a resurgence in popularity after his professional hiatus in the 1950's, said Cuffling, who has since performed in and directed Coward's plays. "For me it's not stale. I could do Hay Fever every year and it would be different every time," he said, adding the actors' sensibilities shape the form of the comedy. "When you have very talented actors, they bring their personalities and their sense of humour," he said. The cast of nine includes local favourite Ladysmith resident Norma Bowen as matriarch Judith Bliss. Cuffling notes that staying power of Coward's works and predicts they will prove to possess a longevity similar to that of Shakespeare. A comparison with the greatest of English language playwrights may seem odd given Coward's plays are what Cuffling calls "pure entertainment" complete with pie-in-the-face physical comedy. But it's Coward's sophisticated use of language, three-dimensional, solid characters, and themes that speak to the human experience, that make his plays so rich, said Cuffling. Another similarity between Coward and the bard: Both wrote for the people and knew what would amuse them, said Cuffling. "I think we can all identify with rudeness or the breaking of the rules of good manners," he said, adding laughing at the foibles of people forced to deal with each other's idiosyncrasies is a therapeutic experience for the audience. The light-hearted Hay Fever is a great prelude to spring, said Cuffling. "It's chintz - it gets rid of the blues. It puts you in a very good mood."
Chemainus star still strong at 79
By Adrian Chamberlain
She's likely Victoria's oldest professional actress, yet Margaret Martin has no plans to exit the stage. At least, not yet. "I keep saying I'm going to retire," said Martin, 79, who plays Clara the maid in Chemainus Theatre's new production of Noel Coward's Hay Fever. "I'll say, 'I really should quit this.' And then someone phones and says, 'Will you do this role?' " Martin - a five-foot-one dynamo in a fashionable red leather jacket - has been acting in Victoria since 1951. She's been a professional since 1978. The old Bastion Theatre offered her a role in the Kaufman/Hart comedy, The Man Who Came to Dinner, earning her entry into the ACTRA union. The role of Clara in Hay Fever marks the seventh time Martin has acted in a Chemainus Theatre production. It's a heavy commitment for anyone, let alone someone entering her eighth decade. For the past three weeks Martin has commuted back and forth from Victoria to Chemainus for daily rehearsals, nipping over the Malahat in her high-performance Mazdaspeed 6. "I am a good driver," she said. The 77-kilometre commute continues. Martin just started a six-week run of Hay Fever, calling for eight shows a week. The actress credits her stamina to good health and a continuing ability to remember lines. It was Chemainus Theatre artistic director Jeremy Tow who first hired Martin to perform at his theatre. On the recommendation of her old friend, actor/director Bernard Cuffling, she played Marilla in Anne of Green Gables. "She brings so much to the stage," said Tow. "She has so much joy as a performer." Originally from Vancouver, Martin had worked as a primary school teacher when she first moved to Victoria. Because she knew few people here, her husband suggested she join an activity. Martin, who'd performed in high school operettas, linked with the St. Luke's Players, a non-professional company. Her success with St. Luke's led to a theatre scholarship to the Banff School of Fine Arts and later roles with the Bastion Theatre. In this city, Martin is best known as the actress who portrays Emily Carr. She first played the role in 1966 at McPherson Playhouse for Herman Voaden's Emily Carr. Martin reprised the character for a 1975 award - winning CBC documentary on the artist - a role that earned her theatre work across Canada. And in the early 1980s she once again played Carr in a musical called The Wonder of It All, mounted by Four Seasons Musical Theatre. Martin recalls several of Carr's friends attending the 1966 play. They told her she shared some of the artist's characteristics, including her forthright way of walking. "They also told me Carr was very jealous, if she wasn't invited to something and one of her friends was," the actress recalled. In past years Martin has had roles in Vancouver-shot films and TV series, including Da Vinci's Inquest and MacGyver. Yet these days she confines her acting to Vancouver Island. While Martin's had recent roles at the Belfry Theatre, including last year's Homechild, she retains a particular fondness for the Chemainus Theatre. "I love all the young people [in this cast]. They don't look at me like I have two heads, because I'm old you know," she said with a smile.
A Blissful reality check
By Peter Rusland
Hay Fever takes a funny stab at pretension. Playwright Noel Coward's talent to amuse scored a direct hit during last Thursday's debut of Hay Fever at the Chemainus Theatre. Director Bernard Cuffling's astute cast made fine work of the comic satire that's must viewing for those who believe their family is dysfunctional. The naughty Bliss clan stamps a capital D on that term with charmingly witty results. Unwary invited guests simply fall prey to the family's special brand of stripping off pretense and snobbery to reach a bedrock of candor and spontaneity. Siblings Simon (Daryl King) and Sorel (Julie McIsaac) are chips off the Bliss block hewn by Judith (Norma Bowen) and David (William Groth) as unsuspecting visitors discover one weekend. Just one Blissful reality check leaves their guests hightailing for the door the morning after. Viewers might wonder on whom Sir Coward's feverish characters were based during his years of social antics in England's stuffy salons and beyond until his death in Jamaica in 1973. Expressive Bowen is wonderful to watch as melodramatic matriarch Judith Bliss, still hoping to reprise her stage career. She's matched by Groth's canny, aspiring novelist David as the well-off couple instills unbridled debate and high jinks into their eager kids. The family's rapid-fire dialogue sets the stage for the entrance of sporty Sandy Tyrell (Ryan Beil), shrinking wallflower Jackie Coryton (Ruth Brown), dashing gent Richard Greatham (David Thomson), and conceited tease Myra Arundel (Anita Wittenberg). They're putty in the parlor of the Blisses who prod their guests into compromised positions then rub their noses in the embarrassed selfishness. Margaret Martin's crone maid Clara perfectly symbolizes every British servant yearning to dodge pathetic duty: she simply slams the door in the faces of arriving visitors. Being real would have saved the Blisses' guests but the four visitors were unable to remove their pitiful masks hiding low self-esteem. Instead, the guests take red-faced lumps before escaping to safer ground where they don't feel so vulnerable. Thankfully, Hay Fever - a title aptly symbolic of unavoidable social discomfort - excuses itself from degrading into a silly farce. Instead, Cuffling's polished cast nicely delivers Coward's intended messages about class snobbery by turning a mirror on fakery during this classy stage jewel. Hay Fever runs until April 5. Comic-satire rating: 9 quips out of 10.
Delightful cast brings Hay Fever to life in rousing play under Bernard Cuffling at Chemainus Theatre Festival By Tom Masters
English playwright Noel Coward (1899-1973) was a multitalented genius of stage and screen. His oeuvre includes over 50 plays and screen plays, scores of songs, music and lyrics, and several books. An actor at the age of 12, the first play he wrote was produced when he was only 20. An example of his versatility is found in the award-winning 1942 film, In Which We Serve, that he produced and co-directed, and for which he wrote both the screenplay and the music, besides starring in the lead role. He served in war-time British intelligence, was an accomplished painter and received a knighthood in 1970. Chemainus Theatre Festival's presentation of Noel Coward's 1925 comedy, Hay Fever, is exemplary of his early period. Coward, who was born into a working class family, became a keen observer of the social customs and mores he saw around him as he rose to prominence in the theatrical world, eventually becoming a personal friend of King George VI. It was this sensitivity to class distinctions and behaviours that formed the basis of much of his comedy. The show begins with another imaginative set by Sam Whittingham: a country house with an innovative open roof, revealing the garden beyond and the sky which, with lighting by John Webber and sound by Robin Boxwell, indicates the passage of night and day, the changing weather including a dramatic thunder storm, and countless cues to goings on throughout the house. The story revolves around the arrival (and departure) of four weekend guests, each of whom has been invited independently by four members of the eccentric and ironically named Bliss family. Under the direction of CTF veteran, Bernard Cuffling, "Hay Fever" builds to its wonderful denouement, examining the foibles of each character and holding them up to entertaining scrutiny. The family-and the play-are anchored by a solid performance by Norma Bowen as Judith Bliss, wife, mother and retired actress with more than a flair for the dramatic. Ne'er-do well son Simon is well played by Daryl King; and Julie McIsaac as flamboyant, socially ambitious Sorel is very much her mother's daughter. Father and novelist David Bliss is played by veteran William Groth, an actor who can dominate a scene, or not, as he chooses. Fussy, self-centred and oblivious to the chaos around him, the elder Bliss provides that fragment of sanity which saves the family from flying apart in all directions. But it is the guests who at least try to behave with a soupcon of decorum despite a veritable barrage of provocation. The natural comic talent of Ryan Beil, who plays Sandy Tyrell, is evident from his first entrance. Graceful and awkward, rational and romantic, Tyrell is an adventurer in a land stranger than any he has stumbled into before. Shy, unsophisticated Jackie Coryton is played by Ruth Brown, in a fine, even brilliantly understated comic performance, whose pitiful squeaks and agonizing silences only serve to underscore the torments suffered by a young woman stranded in a social milieu beyond her understanding. David Thomson plays guest Richard Greatham. Correct and dignified at all times, his attempts to handle the indignities heaped upon him become funnier with each crisis. The scene where Greatham, in the absence of their hosts, attempts to help Jackie Coryton to take off her coat and hat is a masterpiece of comic tension. CTF regular Anita Wittenberg gives her usual strong performance as Myra Arundel who arrives in pursuit of the son and ends up in the arms of the father. Margaret Martin makes her seventh appearance on the Chemainus stage as the ancient and irascible maid Clara, every appearance of whom is a delight. Taken together, this talented cast delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance. And, apart from the first few minutes as the audience accustoms itself to the fast-moving dialog and attunes its ear to the Canadianized British accents, the experienced and confident hand of director Bernard Cuffling brings it all together, providing an unforgettable evening of fun and entertainment. Hay Fever runs until April 5. Tom Masters is a writer and resident of Chemainus. E-mail: masters9@telus.net
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