Dan Myers
Spooky fun: Stephanie Frank (left) as Mrs. Bradman and Alicia McKenna as Ruth.
Writers will go to any lengths for inspiration. Such is the case for Charles Condomine, a novelist who has decided that the main character for his next book will be a medium. In the name of research he invites a local spiritualist to a dinner party with friends, so he can take notes on the séance, which he is sure is all an elaborate ruse. The unintended results of this experiment with the occult play out in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, presented by Strollers Theatre on the Bartell Theatre’s Evjue stage, through May 21.
When the eccentric Madame Aracati (Rebecca Raether) packs up her candles and incantations that night, she leaves behind the ghost of Charles’s first wife, Elvira (Jessica Jane Witham), and the household is turned upside down.
Charles (Scott Albert Bennett) is at first disturbed, then perplexed, then somewhat excited at the prospect of having Elvira back in the house, as she caresses him with ghostly fingers, dotes on and teases him, while berating and tormenting his second wife Ruth (Alicia McKenna). Predictably, this scenario drives Ruth to the brink of madness. It’s all the more satisfying, then, to see the two women eventually team up and turn on Charles, who truthfully didn’t treat either of them very well during their marriages.
Although the cast is uneven and their English accents tend to come and go, the leads are delightful in this comedy of supernatural errors. Witham is particularly enchanting as the ghostly Elvira, who delights in making mischief in her former house. Dressed in a slinky white satin gown, she pours herself seductively into chairs and lounges on the settee like a master temptress toying with her prey. When her fantasy reunion with Charles doesn’t live up to its promise, Witham is equally amusing articulating her disappointment with caustic wit.
As Charles, Bennett is the ring master of the circus he has created, trying to negotiate a peace between himself and his wives while reassuring himself he hasn’t gone mad. Emotionally he travels the furthest in the play, transitioning naturally from surprise, shock and bewilderment, to lust, anger, defensiveness and finally desperation. He gives the character a light touch in the midst of a cast overcome by extremes, which centers the play.
Admonishing disbelievers and struggling to understand her own powers, Raether delivers some of the funniest lines of the play as the slightly off-center medium, Madame Arcati. She blends just the right amounts of carnival sideshow performer and stiff-upper-lip English spinster, to make the ghost hunter simultaneously plausible and preposterous – like a prim professor from Hogwarts.
Director Dan Myers keeps the pace of this talky comic classic brisk, and the actors continuously moving around the stuffy English country house set. Special kudos go to the cast members who have to repeatedly pour drinks and juggle glasses from the liquor cabinet, which gets a workout during the show.
Ending the season on a silly note, Strollers’ production of Blithe Spirit exposes the tenuous balancing act of relationships with quite a bit of magic thrown in.
