"Blithe Spirit"
A play written by Noel Coward
The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA
May 7- June 6, 2010
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes with two brief intermissions
This play was a ton of fun. Let’s review. Here we have American actors streaking through dazzling British dialogue faster than thoroughbreds at Kensington and not dropping an indiscreet vowel anywhere on the page - how swell! A cast with some serious Boston stage royalty sent this production of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" to its heavenly reward in the stretch limo of a production I witnessed in its final weekend of the run.
Charles and Ruth Condomine (Coward has such a flair for creating names) invite Dr. Bradman and his wife Edith for dinner and a funsie séance to be conducted by Mme. Arcati, the local kook. Mostly for entertainment, we’re to understand it’s also grist for content a book Charles is planning to write. Unexpected things happen, deliciously.
Charles’s late wife Elvira materializes, “ectoplasmically,” after Mme. Arcati’s séance, and is visible only by Charles, a terrific device Coward dreams up to make the play really work. Charles's sparring dialogue over unfinished business between him and Elvira is understood by his very alive wife Ruth to be directed toward her. It’s a tribute to Coward that he can wring so much humor from this simple ploy.
The writing for many American sitcoms is full of zingy lines but the humor fired back and forth between Charles, Edith, and Elvira is as dry as Charle’s famous martinis. This is the kind of repartee you’d give your eye teeth to have the presence of mind to fire off spontaneously. When it gets rolling, Charles (Richard Snee), Ruth (Anne Gottlieb), Elvira (Paula Plum), and Mme. Arcati (Kathy St. George) play their roles sublimely over the top.
They mine the biggest bang out of small gestures, non-verbal interplay, and facial expressions. As brilliant as he is, Coward couldn’t write this stuff into the script. The actors have to be able to calibrate from subtle to farcical, and you can almost feel them hooting internally as they romp through some of the fabulous turns of action.
Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle Coward has been slyly assembling for the play's first two hours begin to coalesce at the end of Act 2. By the end of Act 3, Coward tidies up all the loose ends, taking aim at the British upper class drawing room fascination with crystal balls, psychics, and séances-as-party-games while he’s at it.
Thanks to the fun-loving actors who relish playing to the back of the house, Noel Coward gave us two hours and forty five minutes of sparkling dialogue and pitch perfect acting… a blithely spirited finale of Lyric Stage’s 2010 season.
A play written by Noel Coward
The Lyric Stage Company
140 Clarendon Street
Boston, MA
May 7- June 6, 2010
Running time 2 hours 45 minutes with two brief intermissions
This play was a ton of fun. Let’s review. Here we have American actors streaking through dazzling British dialogue faster than thoroughbreds at Kensington and not dropping an indiscreet vowel anywhere on the page - how swell! A cast with some serious Boston stage royalty sent this production of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit" to its heavenly reward in the stretch limo of a production I witnessed in its final weekend of the run.
Charles and Ruth Condomine (Coward has such a flair for creating names) invite Dr. Bradman and his wife Edith for dinner and a funsie séance to be conducted by Mme. Arcati, the local kook. Mostly for entertainment, we’re to understand it’s also grist for content a book Charles is planning to write. Unexpected things happen, deliciously.
Charles’s late wife Elvira materializes, “ectoplasmically,” after Mme. Arcati’s séance, and is visible only by Charles, a terrific device Coward dreams up to make the play really work. Charles's sparring dialogue over unfinished business between him and Elvira is understood by his very alive wife Ruth to be directed toward her. It’s a tribute to Coward that he can wring so much humor from this simple ploy.
They mine the biggest bang out of small gestures, non-verbal interplay, and facial expressions. As brilliant as he is, Coward couldn’t write this stuff into the script. The actors have to be able to calibrate from subtle to farcical, and you can almost feel them hooting internally as they romp through some of the fabulous turns of action.
Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle Coward has been slyly assembling for the play's first two hours begin to coalesce at the end of Act 2. By the end of Act 3, Coward tidies up all the loose ends, taking aim at the British upper class drawing room fascination with crystal balls, psychics, and séances-as-party-games while he’s at it.
Thanks to the fun-loving actors who relish playing to the back of the house, Noel Coward gave us two hours and forty five minutes of sparkling dialogue and pitch perfect acting… a blithely spirited finale of Lyric Stage’s 2010 season.
Photo courtesy of Lyric web site
Wish I had seen it. You are deliciously witty yourself. Saw Susaan this week, talked about all your gallavanting. Be well. Carolyn
Posted by: Carolyn Liesy | June 21, 2010 at 06:43 PM