Christine Voytko, Stuart W. Gamble, Russell Garrett, Jeannine Haas, and Fleece in “Blithe Spirit” on the Majestic Theater in West Springfield. Picture: Lee Chambers
Blithe Spirit
Majestic Theater, West Springfield
Written by Noël Coward, directed by Sue Dziura
“Life with out religion is an arid enterprise.”
When was the final time you noticed a play during which the maid was, in the end, crucial character? When was the final time you noticed a play during which there have been a number of seances? When was the final time you noticed a play during which loss of life was mentioned virtually consistently, and all you could possibly do was snigger?
You may simply as effectively ask when was the final time you noticed Noël Coward’s ‘Blithe Spirit’ and have achieved with it. That is my favourite of his comedies. (“Non-public Lives” is ok, too, however…) There has by no means been a comedy fairly like this one. Along with the often-viewed Rex Harriston/Margaret Rutherford movie, I’ve seen seven stage productions of this play. The one at present on the Majestic Theater in West Springfield, Massachusetts, is among the many better of them for a lot of causes. I shall let you know about most of them under. First, nevertheless, I need to sum up what I noticed: a totally sincere, simple efficiency of a play that simply occurred to be amusing in addition to enlightening.
Charles Condomine, a profitable novelist (Russell Garrett) has invited to his house in Kent, England, a famend mystic, Madame Arcati (Jeannine Haas) for a night {of professional} demonstration of her artwork. He’s writing a e-book and wishes an expertise on which to base his essential character. She is useful, dwelling solely seven miles away. With them is his spouse, Ruth (Fleece) and one other couple, the Bradmans (Stuart W. Gamble and Christine Voytko). The night will not be what anybody expects and after Madame Arcati leaves, Charles begins to grasp the unintentional, or incidental, outcomes of her work.
What follows is the journey of a lifetime, when his first spouse’s ghost takes up residence in the home. After that, nothing is ever the identical once more for Charles and Ruth, and nothing is ever the identical for his or her maid, Edith (Caelie Scott), both. “Life with out religion,” Charles remarks, “is an arid enterprise,” and for the Condomines, life with religion is inconsistent with their restricted realities. This play exhibits us what two individuals can do once they settle for their unsure futures truthfully and attempt to stay with the playing cards they’ve been dealt by the hand of destiny. This may occasionally not sound like enjoyable, however, truthfully, it’s. Coward’s play, when the laughs aren’t pressured as they so typically have been, faces dilemma, pleasure, and decision-making with mutual honesty and everybody suffers for it. And also you snigger. You simply snigger!
Caelie Scott as Edith provides the maid actual character from her first awkward entrance into the fantastically designed drawing room created by Greg Trochlil. Scott is an actual presence as Edith, and the laughs she garners all through the play are real and well-realized. Her ultimate exit, typically performed by others for the worst sexual inference potential, retains in character and will get the light response that light humor engenders.
As her mistress, Ruth Condomine, Fleece has her sweetest moments within the play with Edith. Coping with an inherited servant is rarely straightforward and Ruth works on the relationship tougher than she does together with her husband. Fleece shows Ruth’s greatest aspect in her scenes with the irritating servant, her “maid-of-all-work.” What she faces with Charles takes the actress to the sting of sanity and composure, which she performs with dramatic power and emotional disparity. It’s an exquisite efficiency.
Elvira, the lifeless first spouse, provides Sarah Corbym Woolf a number of alternatives to stretch the comedy data farce (Coward’s personal description of the play) however she performs the humanity in Elvira’s inhumanity as a substitute, making a a lot stronger character than is widespread. Her Elvira is proscribed solely by loss of life; she reveals each womanly sense as she overstays her awkward welcome. Woolf retains Elvira actual and offers Coward’s character a palpable madness.
The beleaguered husband of two wives, Russell Garrett as Charles, virtually ages earlier than our eyes. His Charles is comparatively unsympathetic, which will increase our curiosity in Charles and the way he manages to take care of this uniquely unsatisfying menage a trois. He makes the dramatic most out of his comedic state of affairs.
Madame Arcati can, and has, stolen this present many instances. Jeannine Haas has chosen a greater solution to play than the standard farceuse. She performs the lady extra within the fashion of Oscar Wilde than the fifth Marx brother. Arcati is an early vegan, however Haas permits her the human choices of a particular visitor. The lady’s work is introduced with a fundamental understanding of actuality within the mystical and her laughs are garnered via character traits relatively than caricature. She performs each humorous bit from the reality Arcati brings together with her on her bicycle. It is a very actual lady who can’t be something however sincere, and bears the brunt of others’ scorn with high-level coronary heart and a safe sense of self-importance. When the script places her into ridiculous reactions, Haas merely acts via it and reemerges as an actual individual as a substitute of as a joke. I really like Margaret Rutherford within the position and Haas comes near that absurdist/actress, solely with out stepping over the road of honesty.
Director Sue Dziura has achieved a outstanding job with this play, eradicating it from its traditional pressured humor and letting it play as actual as an O’Neil drama. Her manufacturing is enhanced by Daybreak McKay’s beautiful costumes and the considerably awkward lighting by Daniel David Rist. No ghost play is with out its particular results and people on this play, within the stunning Majestic Theater, have been created, it appears, by Greg Trochlil. It is a fantastic manufacturing and I’m glad I noticed it. You’ll be too, so get your tickets now.
“Blithe Spirit” runs via April 3 at West Springfield’s Majestic Theater, 151 Elm St. Tickets for the present can be found on the Majestic field workplace or by calling 413-747-7797.