HPA Presents ‘Hay Fever’ April 25–27

Hawai‘i Preparatory Academy (HPA) spring production of Noël Coward’s hit play, Hay Fever, runs April 25, 26, and 27, 2019 at the academy’s Gates Performing Arts Center (GPAC).

The end of World War I, the passage of the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote, prohibition, F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and jazz music contributed to a disdain for the social norms and accepted behaviors of the early twentieth century, and ushered in the indulgent, “roaring” twenties!

English playwright, Coward, was poised to become the perfect playwright for this new decade. His plays reflected the indulgent roaring twenties and were celebrated because of their clipped and witty dialogue and their refection of high society, and thus began his long career as a writer, composer, director, producer, actor, singer, and dancer.

Coward referred to Hay Fever as a play inspired by his observations of his friend Laurette Taylor, an American actress, and her ruthless parties, describing them as “a comedy of manners—bad manners, with a minimal plot about a weekend from hell!”

HPA’s adaptation of Hay Fever aims to highlight the love, however twisted, of the narcissistic Bliss family and to minimize the cigarettes and martinis so pervasive in the plays, novels, and flapper lifestyles of the 1920’s!

Tickets, which only are available at the door, are $10 for adults and $5 for students. The Gates Performing Arts Center (GPAC) is located 65-1692 Kohala Mountain Road in Waimea.