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...
An Olympic year that also includes a European Championship, two cricket World Cups and a fight for heavyweight supremacy The 34th edition of Africa’s biggest sporting event was meant to be held in Ivory Coast between June and July 2023 but was moved after somebody realised it rains a lot in the country at that time of the year. So it takes place at the start of 2024 instead and for Mohamed Salah the target is redemption having been part of the Egypt team that suffered the pain of penalty shootout defeat to Senegal in the 2022 final . A host of other big names will also be at the tournament, including André Onana (Cameroon), Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) and Victor Osimhen (Nigeria). Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NHAzhI1 via IFTTT