HAY FEVER Reveals Full Cast Starring Alongside Christine Baranski at Wyndham's Theatre
Nancy Carroll, Ophelia Lovibond and Charles Edwards join the cast under director Emily Burns.
Full casting has been announced for the new production of Noël Coward's comedy Hay Fever at Wyndham's Theatre. Joining the previously announced two-time Tony Award winning Christine Baranski as Judith Bliss and Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant as David Bliss will be Nancy Carroll as Myra Arundel, Will Close as Simon Bliss, Charles Edwards as Richard Greatham, Ophelia Lovibond as Sorel Bliss, Ash Hunter as Sandy Tyrell, Lucy Karczewski as Jackie Coryton and Jo McInnes as Clara. The cast is completed by Helena Antoniou, Charlotte Avery and Shaun Mendum.
Directed by Emily Burns, Hay Fever will play at Wyndham's Theatre, a Delfont Mackintosh Theatre, for a strictly limited season from 22 September to 12 December 2026 with a press night on 1 October 2026. Further tickets from £30 have also been released for the production.
About Hay Fever
Noël Coward's Hay Fever is directed by Emily Burns with set and costume design by Frankie Bradshaw, lighting design by Oliver Fenwick and sound design by Tingying Dong. The fight and intimacy director is Bethan Clark, the dialect coach is Danièle Lydon the Associate Director is Blythe Stewart and Casting is by Jim Carnahan CSA and Liz Fraser CSA.
It's LOATHSOME being looked after. Last year, Judith retired from her life-on-stage. Already, she misses the applause. Idling away at their country home, the rest of the family – reclusive novelist husband David and failure-to-launch children Sorrel and Simon – are too self-involved to be a good audience. So, Judith invites a young fan as her guest for the weekend. But unbeknownst to her, each of the Blisses have a guest of their own arriving at the very same time. Completely unsuited to hosting and allergic to compromise, the house quickly erupts into a chaos of parlour games, put-downs and unrequested encores.
Biographies
Nancy Carroll's theatre credits include After the Dance, for which she won both the Olivier Award and Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress, The Enchantment, Man of Mode, The Voysey Inheritance, The False Servant, The Talking Cure Manor and The Magistrate, all at The National Theatre. Her West End credits include Arcadia, You Never Can Tell, See How They Run and The Duck House. Her other theatre credits include Broken Glass at the Young Vic, Hamlet, Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 and The Winter's Tale all at the RSC, The Cabinet Minister and Marjorie Prime at the Menier Chocolate Factory, Rock 'n' Roll and The Moderate Soprano at Hampstead Theatre, Betrayal at Theatre Royal Bath, Closer and The Recruiting Officer at the Donmar, House of Games, Waste and King Lear at the Almeida, Mammals at the Bush Theatre, A Midsummer Night's Dream at Sheffield Theatres and Still Life/Astonished Heart at Liverpool Playhouse. Her television credits include The Diplomat, Dalgleish, Ghosts of Beirut, Father Brown, The Crown, Murder in Provence, Stephen, Will, Suspicions of Mr. Whicher; Lewis, Queens of Mystery, Call the Midwife and Cambridge Spies. Film credits include Clayface, F1, Happy and Glorious, Fantastic Four, The First Steps, Magic Mike – The Last Dance, The Gathering Storm, Iris and An Ideal Husband.
Will Close won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Harry Kane in the hit play Dear England, both at The National Theatre and in the West End. His other theatre credits include Porn Play at the Royal Court, Man Mountain, Bad Altitude, 1599, Great British Mysteries? all at Soho Theatre, Mediocre White Male at the Park Theatre and Golem at the Young Vic. His film credits include Beware Boiúna and Falling and his television credits include The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13¾, Silent Witness, Midsomer Murders, Death in Paradise, Dalgliesh and Buffering.
Charles Edwards' theatre credits include The Line of Beauty at the Almeida, Best of Enemies at the Young Vic, for which he received an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor, The Ballad of Hattie and James at the Kiln Theatre and Absolute Hell, Waste, Strange Interlude, Twelfth Night, The Duchess of Malfi, and All My Sons, all at The National Theatre. He has been nominated three times for the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performances in Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare's Globe, The King's Speech at the Wyndham's Theatre and This House at The National Theatre. His other theatre credits include Copenhagen at Chichester Festival Theatre, My Fair Lady at the Capitol Theatre in Sydney, Richard II at Shakespeare's Globe, Blithe Spirit in the West End and the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and The 39 Steps in the West End and on Broadway. His film credits include Elsinore, The Duke, The Witches, Philomena and Mansfield Park. His television credits include War, Patience, The Lord of the Rings - The Rings of Power, The Gentlemen, Dreaming Whilst Black, The Lady, The Crown, Downton Abbey, The Terror, Holy Flying Circus, The Halcyon, Henry IX, Under the Vines, Sherlock and Arthur and George.
Ophelia Lovibond's theatre credits include The Hills of California at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End and the Broadhurst Theatre on Broadway, Nightfall at The Bridge Theatre, The Bay at Nice at the Menier Chocolate Factory, The Effect at Sheffield Crucible, The Libertine at the Theatre Royal Haymarket and The Stepmother at Chichester Festival Theatre. Film credits include Here, Real Love (Yes, It's Real Love!), Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made, Rocketman, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Tommy's Honour, Man Up, Guardians of The Galaxy, A Single Shot, Eight Minutes Idle, Mr. Popper's Penguins, No Strings Attached, London Boulevard, 4.3.2.1., Chatroom, Nowhere Boy, Shadows in The Sun, Popcorn, Oliver Twist, Crusade in Jeans. Television credits include W1A (series S1, 2 and 3), Mobland, The Lady, Partygate, This England, Minx, What If…?, Trying, Roadkill, Feel Good, Elementary, Whiskey Cavalier, Hooten & The Lady, Mr. Sloane, Inside No.9, The Poison Tree, Titanic: Blood & Steel, FM, Inspector Lewis, Messiah: The Rapture, Delta Forever, Heartbeat, Nathan Barley, Single, Loving You and The Wilsons.
Ash Hunter's theatre credits include, for The National Theatre, Grenfell: In The Words of Survivors (also at St. Ann's Warehouse in New York), Wuthering Heights and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire. His West End credits include Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre and his other theatre credits include Pitcairn at Shakespeare's Globe, HY Brasil at The Old Vic, Anthony & Cleopatra for the RSC and at The Public Theatre in New York, A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Almeida Theatre, The Meat Kings! (Inc.) of Brooklyn Heights at the Park Theatre, Macbeth at Leeds Playhouse, God's Property at Soho Theatre, Unrivalled Landscape at Orange Tree Theatre, Gravity at Birmingham Rep and A Clockwork Orange at Theatre Royal Stratford East. His film credits include Intrigo: Dear Agnes and The Thief, and his television credits include Maya, Alma's Not Normal, Grace, Father Brown, Bridgerton, Harlots, The Trial of Christine Keeler, Death in Paradise, The Secret Agent, Wolfblood, Switch and Good Times Rolled.
Lucy Karczewski won The Stage Debut Award for Best Performer in a Play for her performance in Stereophonic at the Duke of York's Theatre, for which she also received an Olivier nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and a nomination in the Emerging Talent category for the London Standard Theatre Awards. Her other theatre credits include The Seagull at the Barbican, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Glass Menagerie, Romeo and Juliet, The Cherry Orchard, The Government Inspector and A Monster Calls, all at LAMDA. She will soon make her television debut in the Peaky Blinders sequel.
Jo McInnes' theatre credits include 4.48 Psychosis for The Royal Court Theatre and RSC, and at St Ann's Warehouse, Coram Boy at Chichester Festival Theatre, Romeo and Julie at the Almedia Theatre, Medea at SohoPlace, The Corn is Green, The House Of Bernarda Alba, and The Children's Hour, all at The National Theatre, The Jungle at The Young Vic, the Playhouse Theatre and St Ann's Warehouse, Wastewater, Fleshwound, and Bluebird, all at the Royal Court, The Herbal Bed, As You Like It, and General from America for the RSC, Uncle Vanya at the Young Vic, M.A.D at the Bush Theatre, On Blindness and Dirty Butterfly at the Soho Theatre, and Edward II at the Sheffield Crucible. Her television include This England, Eternal Law, Five Daughters, Material Girl, Recovery, Afterlife, Sorted, The World Of Impressionists, Spooks, Living It, and Playing The Field. Her film credits include Me and Orson Welles, The New Romantics, My Wife is an Actress, Birthday Girl, and Gangster No. 1.