IMAGINE if every member of your family invited someone different to stay for the weekend. Mayhem could well be the result.

For someone with the skill (and the mischievous humour) of Noel Coward, it is an irresistible situation.

He didn’t, of course, resist and the result was Hay Fever, one of Coward’s most enduring and most popular plays.

Emley Drama Group are currently the ones giving in to the Coward magic and will be staging this roaring Twenties play next week. Performances begin at Emley Methodist Church Hall on Wednesday and that first night will have added nerve-jangling potential for the actors as the new mayor of Kirklees, Clr Julie Stewart Turner will be in the audience.

The play may have been written in the Twenties but what Coward has to say about manners, pretensions and behaviour will have just as many people wincing today as it presumably did then.

The Emley team has set Coward’s story in modern times, but no, they haven’t meddled with the words. Well how could they.

Karen Kirkup directs with Kelvyn Waites as producer and assistant director.

The cast of nine includes what some would call some of the usual Emley suspects but others would confirm are in fact some of the company’s most experienced actors.

Be prepared for a treat.

Performances continue each evening until Saturday at 7.30pm.