Noel Coward's Hay Fever is built round a hellish weekend away in which bad behaviour abounds, reports Charles Hutchinson.

DAMIAN Cruden has caught Hay Fever and he could not be happier.

"I love it; I've always loved it, ever since seeing it at the Lyceum in Edinburgh. I think it's the funniest play," he says, explaining his summer choice for York Theatre Royal.

Noel Coward's comedy of bad manners at a weekend house party delights in the worst English behaviour in the company of the artistic Bliss family, whose guests are alternately amused, ignored, humiliated and finally abandoned at their country pad near Maidenhead.

"You're supposed to feel sorry for the guests but their weekend experiences bring out the worst in them and by the end their behaviour is absolutely appalling. As a family, the Blisses expose the shallowness of the world as it's supposed to be, as if there should be some form of appropriate behaviour in their world that they should aspire to," says Damian, right, artistic director of the York Theatre Royal.

"In reality, the guests all have selfish streaks and they all have ulterior reasons for being there, whereas the family are entirely honest about why they brought them there, and that is to each make themselves the centre of attention for the weekend and to annoy other members of the family."

Damian savours the "wonderful lightness of touch of the writing" and yet initially Coward had his reservations about the play.

"He was not sure what he had written and was slightly disappointed at the time, but what it's about is the social mores of his day."

He has had a joyous time casting his net for his company, which is to be led by David Leonard, the satanic majesty of the Theatre Royal's pantomime. "David has previously played Simon Bliss, the son, and now he's playing David Bliss, the novelist. He's such a good actor that he can play anything," Damian says.

"Kate Brown, who's playing retired actress Judith Bliss, invited me to see her in Round The Horne... Revisited and that's how you find people: if you don't go to see shows, how do you judge? What happened was that she was on the list of people to see at the audition, she read well with David, and I said 'I'll come and see your show tonight."

Damian's production will be stylish rather than stylised. "It's a play about people who are incredibly confident, and that's what it has to be. You have to relish the language but you don't force it into received pronunciation because that would kill it.

"In Coward's time, in order to make it clear it was pastiche, he had to lift it and exaggerate it because everyone was speaking that way. Now you don't need to do that any more."

Damian detects echoes of Chekhov's work in Coward's play.

"Hay Fever is set in the country; it has people coming to visit that house; there's a famous actress at the centre of it; you have a family of artistic temperament; and it's a very well structured play with a very clear narrative," he says.

"This is a play where nothing happens and yet everything happens".

Hay Fever, York Theatre Royal, May 23 to June 11. Box office: 01904 623568.

Updated: 08:58 Friday, May 13, 2005