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...
For the Ukrainian leader, there’s no coming back from the debacle. His country’s best hope now lies with Europe No matter their position on the Russia-Ukraine war, people who view the televised encounter between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office will likely be shocked. It didn’t morph into a full-on screaming match, but it came close. The meeting might have gone sideways anyway, but JD Vance ’s presence ensured that it became ugly – and quickly. The vice-president spoke over Zelenskyy, accused him of ingratitude for the assistance provided by the United States (“Have you ever said thank you?”) and of disrespecting Trump , his host, and, for good measure, scolded him for litigating his country’s case in public. That raised the temperature – a lot. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/v9AGDrN via IFTTT