Hay Fever at City Lit Theater

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...If you didn't know that Noel Coward was an actor as well as a playwright, you'd figure it out within minutes of seeing any of his plays: how else to account for the nearly limitless opportunities they provide for chewing the scenery? Entering fully into the Cowardly spirit, director Terry McCabe frees his Hay Fever cast to emote, pose, posture, and indicate to their hearts' content. The result is precisely what Coward envisioned when he subtitled the piece "a comedy of bad manners": a perfectly-wrought piece of early 20th-century snobbish entertainment."

Around The Town Chicago - Recommended

"...Energetic and highly professional acting and fine directing by Terry McCabe make the Noël Coward classic “Hay Fever” a competent performance. The cast does a great job putting on a show that has gotten critical acclaim since the time when it was first produced in London in 1925. But today this well-known script about a comedy of manners and a comedy of rudeness has unfortunately not withstood the test of time."

Third Coast Review - Highly Recommended

"...A high farce, a comedy of manners, a play named after an irrelevant medical condition. Those would be a few ways to describe Noel Coward’s 1925 play, Hay Fever, now on stage at City Lit Theater. Terry McCabe’s crisp direction makes great use of Coward’s dialogue and McCabe paces his actors to emphasize the characters’ eccentricities."

Splash Magazine - Highly Recommended

"...First written and produced in 1925, HAY FEVER has definitely stood the test of time. Noel Coward's 100-year masterpiece has endured because, unfortunately, poor manners and inhospitality never go out of style. And they're just as relevant today."

NewCity Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...Life is just bad theater, theater is just lightly polished life in Noel Coward's "Hay Fever," tellingly subtitled, "A Comedy of Bad Manners." Under Terry McCabe's crisp direction, the 1925 play comes saucily to life, its portrayal of showbiz self-absorption and social insensitivity as fresh and stinging as an Oscar-night slap."