[NEohioPAL] Review of "Blithe Spirit" at Great Lakes Theater

[Bob Abelman]

Great Lakes Theater offers a highly spirited 'Blithe Spirit' 

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 3/8/13

 

Noël Coward's "Blithe Spirit," first staged in London in 1941, is the comedic equivalent of a dry martini.  

Comprised of urbane smugness, just a hint of slapstick and stirred (the worlds created by Noël Coward are never shaken), the play is considered low-shelf stuff compared to Cowards' more successful "Private Lives" and "Hay Fever."  It is, however, still clever, caustic and particularly funny in the hands of Great Lakes Theater.

Classified as a "comedy of manners," "Blithe Spirit" is set in the sophisticated world of the upper class and serves to ridicule the pretensions of those who consider themselves socially superior.  Witty dialogue presented through rapid-fire delivery, rather than complicated plots or complex characters, drives these plays.  Their humor resides in witnessing reserved, typically unaffected, upper-crust Brits addressing an utterly improbable and absurd situation, and becoming increasingly nonplused. 

"Blithe Spirit" concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine (Eric Damon Smith), who invites the eccentric clairvoyant, Madame Arcati (Laurie Birmingham) and friends (Aled Davies and Molly McGinnis) to his house for a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book.  The séance inadvertently opens a pathway for poltergeists and Charles is visited by his ethereal and beautiful first wife, Elvira (Shanara Gabrielle).  Elvira decides to stay for a while and haunt Charles' marriage to his second wife, Ruth (Maggie Kettering), who cannot see, hear, or tolerate the aberration.  

 

"Comedy of manners" storytelling is foreign-born and woefully outdated, but the GLT effectively facilitates our acclimation to this nearly three-hour, three-act excursion and it does so from the get-to.  

 

Prior to Charles' nine-page, four-martini presentation of the exposition, which opens this play and justifies its pretense, we are offered a delightful pantomime by Edith the maid (Jodi Dominick).  According to Coward's brief stage direction in the script, Edith comes in "carrying, rather uneasily, a large tray of cocktail things."  Dominick turns this simple note into comedic genius as she awkwardly balances the load and-subtly choreographed to period music playing in the background-agonizes over each and every items' proper placement.  The audience is now properly entertained, primed and ready for the evening's festivities.    

 

In general, director Charles Fee wastes no opportunities to create interesting movement on the stage where none exists on the page in order to keep this production moving at progressively breakneck speed.  Keeping pace with their witty repartee, Smith and Kettering are wonderful as the Condomines.   He a dapper milquetoast and she a no-nonsense matron with little patience for his frailties, both are delightful to watch throughout this production.  

 

Gabrielle, as Elvira, makes it easy to buy into Charles' predicament of being attracted to the dead.  Her 1940's era flirtation-framed in platinum curls, a skin-clinging gown designed by Kim Krumm Sorenson, and heels-creates wonderful 1940's era sexual tension.   

 

The best thing about this production is Birmingham, who's every motion and movement as Madame Arcati is superbly eccentric.  Whether she is roaming the room sensing ectoplasmic energy through her wrists, waving aimlessly through air in search for the invisible Elvira, or dancing with abandon to attract the spirit she uses to allure those who have crossed over, Birmingham's actions never fail to get a hit-the-funny-bone reaction.   

 

All this takes place in the beautifully constructed and well appointed Condomine living room.  Designer Russell Metheny has an amazing eye for detail, best reflected in the tall wood paneling and period furniture, and a gift for hiding the mechanics that generate the set's destruction at the hands of angry spirits.

 

Like a well made dry martini, "Blithe Spirit" offers pure escapism that is easy to consume.  This fine production of it leaves you particularly lightheaded at the end of the evening.

 

"Blithe Spirit" continues through March 10 at PlayhouseSquare's Hanna Theatre in downtown Cleveland.  For tickets, which range from $15 to $70, call 216-241-6000 or visit www.greatlakestheater.org.
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