Wyndham’s theatre, London Grant brings shock-haired vigour as a vain novelist forced to welcome his boho children’s surprise guests in comedy of clipped social embarrassment Hay Fever, now one of Noël Coward’s best-known and most-performed works, hasn’t always been a smash hit. British critics who found its West End debut in 1925 amusing enough nevertheless noted its lack of plot, and the first Broadway production was a flop. A critic for Vogue called it “funny in places”, which sounds like the kind of stinging putdown you’d expect from the playwright’s own hand. A century of performances have proved the play’s lasting power, but its comic effect has always lain less in the words as written than their delivery – it is, after all, about a family that is “artificial to the point of lunacy”. At their centre is diva Judith Bliss, who has retired from the stage to take up the role of country hostess. When she, her husband and their self-consciously bohemian childre...
The rush into AI has given the flagging technology industry a share price lift, but some investors still remain cautious
US tech companies started the year in the doldrums, beset by a cost overhang from excessively zealous pandemic hiring sprees and fears about the impact of rising interest rates. Things were looking grim – then along came artificial intelligence (AI).
Tech stocks and the blue-chip S&P 500 index have since been buoyed by breakthroughs in generative AI – led by the ChatGPT chatbot – and the promise of a new era of growth for the sector. The S&P 500 is up 18.6% so far in 2023 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite is up 35.7%. Six months is a long time in a fast-moving industry.
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