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Stars explained: * A production of no real merit
with failings in all areas. ** A production showing evidence of not
enough time or effort, or even talent, and which never breathes any real
life into the piece – or a show lumbered with a terrible script. *** A
good enjoyable show which might have some small flaws but has largely
achieved what it set out to do.**** An excellent show which shows a
great deal of work and stage craft with no noticeable or major
flaws.***** A four star show which has found that extra bit of magic
which lifts theatre to another plane. |
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The spirit is willing . . .
Improving reception: Edith the maid, played by Christine Bland, is a conduit to the other side in the hands of medium Madame Arcati played by Ros Davies. Pictures: Roy Palmer. Blithe Spirit Hall Green Little Theatre **** NOEL Coward’s ghostly comedy was hit by
rather more earthly problems in this spirited production. With Linda Neale who plays Ruth, one of the key
roles, taken ill, director Louise Price had to step in at the last
minute, script in hand, to fill the breach. And, in a sort of rehearsed reading performance, she did well enough so that after a while you hardly noticed her script in hand, but such a handicap to a production is a bit like playing the piano with a sticking plaster on one finger; it disrupts the flow and takes away a play's natural rhythm, which is a pity as this had the makings of a fine staging and had attracted a full house. The play, written by Coward in 1941 while on
holiday in Portmeirion after his London flat had been destroyed in
the Blitz, revolves around novelist Charles Condomine,
played with his usual assurance by Jon Richardson, who arranges a séance
to gather ideas and material for his next book. He invites along his friend
and GP Dr George Bradman and his wife, played by Andrew Cooley and
Esther Roden, and the flamboyant, larger than life medium and psychic,
Madame Arcati, played with a glorious
sense of exuberant fun by Ros Davies in a memorable
performance. To say the guests
Zofja Zolna is a delight as the ghostly Elvira, flighty, coquettish, full of mischief - and eager to get her hands once more on Charles. The major
obstacle in that particular ambition
being wife No 2 Ruth who has the distinct
advantage in the battle for Charles of actually
being alive Charles’s dilemma in holding
two conversations simultaneously with two wives – and one can’t see or
hear the other, or at first even believe she exists – leads to scenes of
amusing confusion and unintended offence but out of it all Charles, who
has been a ladies’ man in his past, starts to see a little of the truth
of what he had let himself into when he said I do . . . twice. One is
not quite as faithful as he thought – although Charles had his
own form in that particular arena - the other is not
quite as loving and a little more controlling than he remembered. Clumping round in the
background through it all is Edith the maid, who rushes
around like an Olympic sprinter (in hob nailed
boots) until told to slow down when she then moves at
the pace of a deep sea diver in lead boots; an amusing performance from
Christine Bland. The set design of a rather
superior lounge from Roy Palmer has a good period feel about it and has
a reassuring solidity – no walls wobbling when doors open or shut here –
and Heather Alexander and Paul Hartop did well with the lighting design
to give us séances and ethereal glows for ghosts. It is just a pity that
unavoidable problems beyond the control of any
earthly cast or crew took the edge
off both pace and timing and you can
only review what is, not what could or should have been.
Even so it is still an
amusing evening of entertainment. Roger
Clarke |
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are
skeptical would be akin to saying the Pope might possibly be Catholic.