Duke Ellington. Charles Lindbergh. Al Capone. Judith Bliss. These names define the ’20s.

Maybe the last name isn’t as important as the first three.

However, Judith Bliss, a retired stage actress, is one of the defining lead characters in the latest ACTORS (Ames Community Theater) production. And the play, Noel Coward’s “Hay Fever,” does take place in the 1920s.

But the similarities end there.

Coward is one of the most significant playwrights of the ’20s, ’30s and ’40s, making this play a solid addition to this ACTORS millennium-themed season.

The play is a timeless farce and fun for all ages, says Lynn Lloyd, ACTORS veteran of 25 years, who plays Judith Bliss in the production.

“It will bring humor to anyone who would watch it,” Lloyd says. “It doesn’t matter that it takes place in 1925.”

Unexpected house guests, each invited by one of the four Bliss family members, arrive for a weekend, and hilarity ensues.

The weekend visitors do not realize what their stay entails, as they are subjected to the Bliss family’s rude theatrical games that sometimes result in romantic interludes.

“The Bliss family creates scenes for their people; nothing is normal in the Bliss family,” Lloyd says. “They get great glee in doing this.”

Prevalent throughout the play is the idea that life is a stage, reinforcing the concepts that are presented in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”

With their sophisticated British language and speedy dialogue, Noel Coward’s plays are generally shunned by amateur groups, making shows like this a rarity.

“After being in the show, I understand that,” Lloyd says. “So to get the twists of the language, the comedy that’s going in these one-liners, that’s very difficult.”

Though written in 1925, the humor and situations of Coward’s play ring true today.

“His plays today are just as enjoyable, just as fresh as they were to the people of the 1920s,” Lloyd says.