BLITHE SPIRIT To 26 September.

Nottingham.

BLITHE SPIRIT
by Nöel Coward.

Nottingham Playhouse To 26 September 2009.
Mon-Sat 7.45pm Mat 1.30pm 17, 24 Sept 1.30pm,12, 19 Sept 2.30pm. no performance 16, 21 Sept.
Audio Described 19 Sept 2.30pm, 23 Sept.
Captioned 25 Sept.
Runs 2hr 45min One interval.

TICKETS: 0115 941 9419.
www.nottinghamplayhouse.co.uk.
Review: Alan Geary 8 September.

Director Giles Croft has a hit on his hands with this one.
If there’s any justice in this world director Giles Croft has a hit on his hands with Blithe Spirit. He takes seven excellent actors, puts them to work on Dawn Allsopp’s tricksy drawing-room set - it comes alive at the end - and lets a wonderful play speak for itself.

By way of research for a novel, writer Charles Condomine (Giles Taylor) and his second wife Ruth (Lucy Robinson) organise a séance along with a couple of friends and the local medium Madame Arcati (Liz Crowther). Wife number one, the late and very glamorous Elvira (Clare Swinburne), is brought back from the other side.

Nöel Coward was on top form here. It’s a tight, non-drifting text: every word counts. And the characters are believable and well-delineated. In the first minute we have the maid Edith (well observed by Sophie Ellerby) so enthusiastic about her new post that the drinks tray is shaking in her hands. She’s told not to rush about so much as if she’s in the Navy. But, along with the wit, there’s a moral purpose to the play: early on Ruth remarks how nowadays - it’s the late thirties - we’re “shocked by honesty but not by deceit”.

Particularly in the first halt, Swinburne’s Elvira is inevitably one-dimensional, but she’s a splendid contrast to Robinson’s Ruth with her affronted dignity. Taylor gets Charles just right; he’s smug at the start, then a man in a mess, then back on top, then in a bigger mess.

Liz Crowther is outstanding. All flowing robes, she’s wide-eyed and potty, and superb in the séance scenes. But Madame Arcati has depth - there’s real anger when she realises how she’s been patronised and exploited.

It seems not all that long ago that Coward was thought to be an anachronism, his work frivolous and inconsequential. This production provides further evidence that we were right to bin that idea.

Edith: Sophie Ellerby.
Ruth Condomine: Lucy Robinson.
Charles Condomine: Giles Taylor.
Dr Bradman: Robert Benfield.
Mrs Bradman: Joan Moon.
Madame Arcati: Liz Crowther.
Elvira Condomine: Clare Swinburne.

Director: Giles Croft.
Designer: Dawn Allsopp.
Lighting: Alexandra Stafford.
Sound: Drew Baumohl.

2009-09-11 01:13:47