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...
Helping you to build up a toolbox of tricks to solve clues, our new Saturday puzzle is a gentle way in for those starting out on cryptic crosswords
“I’d like to do cryptic crosswords, but I just don’t understand the damn things.”
Perhaps this is you. Or perhaps you are a happy solver and you have heard this from loved ones. Either way, what a regrettable state of affairs.
The Guardian Crossword Blog includes a collection of pointers for beginners.
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