Blithe Spirit is a good night out at the theatre. Perhaps you are already familiar with Noel Coward’s work and enjoy his sparkling – if acerbic – comedies. Or maybe it is your first entree into the effervescent, witty world of a master playwright. Either way, you are in for a treat as director Mark Bourne effortlessly unravels the knotty complications of a spiritually spiked menage a trois.
Written in 1941 in just five days, Blithe Spirit was a welcome antidote to the dark days in Britain during World War II. As the casualties mounted, there was a growing interest in spiritualism and making contact with the dear – and not so dear – departed. Blithe Spirit was just the right play for its time and enjoyed a record run of 1997 performances in its first West End production.
The story is unusual – even unique. Novelist Charles Condamine wishes to learn more about the occult for a book he is writing and has invited an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to his home to demonstrate a seance. Unfortunately the irrepressible Mme Arcati accidentally conjures up the ghost of Charles’s first wife Elvira. Determined to reclaim Charles for herself, Elvira sets about undermining the relationship between Charles and his second wife Ruth.
This sets off a chain of events in which Ruth also joins the “other side” and Mme Arcati is kept very busy attempting to exorcise not one but two spirits. Finally Charles makes a final bid for freedom in true Coward style, by quietly closing the double doors of the parlour and leaving his house, to the fury of his ectoplasmic pursuers.
In writing his spiritual fantasy, Coward made the points that, like it or not, the past is always with us in some form or other and also that, for a professional writer like himself, it is better to be a bachelor than to be encumbered by the baggage of family.
The actors deliver Coward’s clever but difficult lines with assurance and the appropriate lightness of touch. There is fine comic work from Anita Brown as the flamboyant Mme Arcati (a role made famous by the redoubtable Margaret Rutherford). This is a hockey mistress type psychic, proud of her professionalism, but somehow not always getting the results that she wants.
Greg Balcombe gives a commanding if perplexed performance as the long-suffering Charles trying to deal with the excesses of two wives. He goes from urbane, man of the world to a rattled shadow of his former self until he rethinks his situation and makes a life-changing decision. Liz Ellis’s Ruth is nicely played as a poised second wife attempting to help her seemingly unhinged husband. Finally as an avenging astral spirit, she is able to vent her true feelings on both Charles and Elvira, the source of her troubles.
The beautiful but feckless Elvira is played with malicious enjoyment and style by Deborah Hunter; and Maud Beissel as the over-enthusiastic but slightly inept maid, Edith, provokes much laughter as she struggles to control her speedy entrances and exits.
Sarah Watson is most engaging as the jolly but socially awkward doctor’s wife, Mrs Bradman, while Brendon Collits plays a suitably patient but embarrassed Dr Bradman, adroitly steering his wife through her social faux pas.
An elegant period set, enlivened by startling sound, lighting and other effects, completes an evening of fun and laughter. A longish play but well worth seeing.
Michael Hoskins Centre, TAS. Playing till October 15.
Book at Dymocks 6771 4558
Review by Barbara Albury
