Blithe Spirit

It had been a while since I last saw this play by Noel Coward, which I was looking forward to and was not disappointed.  There were one or two difficult moments but overall, most enjoyable.  The action takes place in the living room of the Condomine house, and the set depicted the home of an affluent member of society, with double doors upstage centre which led to a hall way, stairs and rest of the house; an open fire place; and French doors opening onto the garden.  The room was well decorated and well dressed with all the furniture and props demanded by the script.  The costumes were of the 1940’s period when the play was written and were all appropriate, they suited the social position and age of the characters, and combined with hairstyles and makeup added to the era.  Ruth’s transition worked very well.         

The technical aspects of the play were excellent, the well-constructed set, the well-designed sound and lighting effects, which were all well cued.  Different times of day were shown, particularly the morning light through the French doors, and the séance scenes.   The ‘ghostly’ effects when Elvira materialised were excellent, the combination of lighting, smoke, costume and makeup created an ethereal character.

The play had been well cast and each actor portrayed their character well. Charles Condomine, the writer who has arranged a séance to gain background information for his latest book, was well played.  The actor had captured the character well, he was slightly irresponsible and sarcastic, he reacted beautifully to Elvira and Ruth when Elvira is invisible to everyone except him.  I would have liked a little more projection from him as he was quiet at times, especially when he was speaking across the stage, but his portrayal was good.  His second wife, Ruth, was a complete contrast to his first wife.  She was sensible and down to earth, well organised and showed a certain amount of insecurity about how she compared to Elvira.  Although she believed Charles was losing his mind, she showed concern and tried to help him.  She handled the scenes with ‘invisible’ Elvira and her transition believably.  Elvira, the first Mrs Condomine, and now appearing as a ghost, was in death as in life, spirited, wild and carefree and enjoyed the odd affair, but was slightly jealous of Ruth.  This actress had really captured the insubstantial aspects of the character in movements, dress and make-up, an excellent performance.  Madame Arcati, the local spiritualist and medium, who has an eight-year-old child as a spirit guide, was portrayed as a boisterous, eccentric and larger than life character. Unfortunately, there were a few stumbles on lines which interrupted the flow, as the characterisation was good, and her trances lovely.  Dr George Bradman, a good friend of the Condomine’s,  he is sceptical of anything to do with spiritualism, but agrees to attend the séance to help Charles’ research for his book.  He was played as a confident down to earth character and had good diction.  His wife, Violet Bradman, was confidently played, she was more naïve than Ruth, intrigued by Madame Arcati, and disappointed that she did not tell fortunes.  She was quite excited about the séance, as she had never attended one before.  Edith, the Condomine’s new Maid, showed all her nervousness, and lack of experience, was clearly in awe of Ruth and wanted to make a good impression by being efficient, which resulted in her rushing about the place causing agitation.  She displayed her youth and lack of experience well.  She is totally unaware of her psychic powers which have interesting results.

This play is written in 3 Acts with 2 intervals, but it had been decided to have only one interval which gave better continuity.  Directors David Lord and Maggie Allsopp had worked well with their talented cast to bring some well-rounded characters to the stage, who delivered the humour and wit of Coward well.  The technical support for this play was excellent, effectively creating the ‘ghostly’ elements.   This was an entertaining evening which the audience appeared to enjoy.

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