Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit is a popular comic play written by Noel Coward which was first produced at the Manchester Opera House in June 1941 prior to its West End Premiere a month later in July 1941.  The story is about a novelist and socialite called Charles Condomine, who invites an eccentric medium  called Madame Arcati, to his house for a small dinner party  and to conduct a séance, as he is hoping to collect material for his next book. Unfortunately, things go very wrong when the ghost of his temperamental first wife, Elvira is inadvertently summonsed during the séance and only Charles can see or hear her.  Charles is now married to his second wife Ruth and Elvira makes a number of attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage.

This enjoyable entertaining production from St Michael’s ADS was directed by Ruth Mcloughlin and this well-loved challenging play had some good actors on show in the cast who included June Dowd who was very enjoyable and comedic as the eccentric medium Madame Arcati giving a very polished performance. Tom Sturgess who stepped in to take on the role of Charles Condomine produced an excellent performance in this demanding wordy role with a maturity which belied his age, he had the mannerisms and accent to match the era of the play, while Brenda Crew produced a strong performance in another important and wordy role of Ruth’s his wife. Cecilie Lykke, Elvira had very good stage presence making great use of the playing area, gliding across the stage, the scene between Charles and Elvira in the second act was a very enjoyable piece of theatre from both actors. On the night I visited the roles of Dr and Mrs Bradman which are smaller but important characters in the script were nicely played by David Palin and Michelle Kenny, but the role of Mrs Bradman was played on Wednesday and Thursday Night by Lauren Sturgess, and lastly but definitely not least Ann Wasley was very comedic as the dizzy maid Edith, she had good comic timing and some very good comedic facial expressions. On the whole diction and clarity of words was good and the pace of the play was just right although there were a number of prompts taken. Just a constructive point, it may have been an idea to try and age Tom a little as the age difference between him and other cast members who were supposed to be Charles’s contemperys was quite noticeable, however I am aware that Tom stepped in when someone dropped out and did an excellent job in this very enjoyable production.

The set which was the living room of the Condomine’s country house was well designed, well-constructed and well dressed with the appropriate furniture and other props and along with excellent technical input and good costumes added to the success of the production                
This was a very entertaining evening so Ruth Mcloughlin, the stage crew, together with a very good cast, are to be congratulated.

I look forward to your next production. Many thanks for your warm welcome.

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