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...
In a country where more than 40% get less than six hours’ sleep a night and millions nap at work, new ways to grab forty winks are big business
For many of us, it is a daily ritual. The eyelids grow heavy as the after-effects of lunch kick in. The head slumps forwards, only to recoil, ideally before anyone in the office has noticed. Energy levels are at rock bottom. The afternoon dip is here. And resistance is futile.
The Spanish have their siestas and millions of French people exercise their right to a postprandial power nap. The Japanese equivalent is the hirune – an afternoon snooze that goes some way towards compensating for their lack of sleep.
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