Theatre Royal
24th January 2020
When Charles Condomine and his second wife Ruth invite eccentric medium Madame Arcati (Jennifer Saunders) to conduct a seance at their home all hell breaks loose, literally. As Charles’ first wife Elvira returns to the human world (only visible to Charles) she is determined to ruin her husband’s new marriage, no matter the consequences…
Saunders is an adorable physical comedic actress and rather upstages the rest of the cast with her twitching, darting tongued medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati giving her the right amount of physical eccentricates whist still allowing her the dignity of a women of her age. There’re a few times when this dignity is called upon, and she rises stately to the challenge, managing to engage on the hurt and presumption which come from the entitled married women and are directed at her dowdy cardiganed self. Saunders gives us a lovely portrait of a particularly kind of sensitive, caught up in a word of unseen sensations, emanations and spirits, and offers us a sympathetic theosophical character to believe in, enjoying her unbridled joy at the apparent successes of the séance. Geoffrey Streatfeild as Charles is not convincing as the kind of man who would capture the interest of two very physical women, I’d not do him. There’s a Boris edge to him. There was no hint of debonair dark passion. The essence of this play is the disruptive force of the memory of sexual passion on the apparently genteel folk caught up in their unsatisfying, but comfortable mid life married lives.
The main problem for me in Richard Eyre’s eyecandy revival is the pacing, the clip clop, don’t stop furious pacing of the piece, it’s as if the director has told the cast to get through the script as fast as they can. There’s hardly a moments rest for some of spectacularly vicious lines to land and be appreciated, this is Coward done as a squash match, rather than as languid tennis played with verbal grenades.
I didn’t really enjoy it, the set was lovely and I spent a fair amount of time looking around and enjoying the ambience. The lighting was good, the silvery ghostly ethereal lighting around Elvira just enough to suggest other-worldliness, although a little out of sync on occasion, but that will be ironed out and the sound scapes have just the right timbre. It’s that right timbre which is the essence of a Coward Play, and for me the masters voice was missing. Coward wrote a clockwork comedy and it needs to be wound up, just so, and then stridden. The laughs need space. Cowards nasty laughter come at the expense of the female characters in this play, Lisa Dillon as Ruth Condomine spars well with Emma Naomi as Elvira and the second half picks up pace when they start the fight and as the play progress and we find out more of the betrayals and secrets that squeeze out through the acid etched cracks of over familiarity, it’s gets uglier still.
However, the audience loved it, the theatre was packed, Saunders will ensure bums on seats for the entire tour, and deliver the necessary laughter with her spot on psychically, the tiny leaps and flicks of her boots, the gusset cooling and the restless gimlet eye for the next sandwich are delightful, making her Madame Arcati effervescent, utterly convincing in her self belief. Perhaps they will all relax into it little, ease off the clutch, allowing the superbly unkind and perceptive writing to shine its wicked little spotlight on lost love, moving-on and skewering the things we allow to haunt us.
Blithe Spirit is an exquisite comic piece and this production does allow us to see the main characters are dreadfully shallow people, with Madam Arcati’s confidence, depth of perception and beliefs being a warm foil to the brittle selfishness of the others, who only look to please themselves.
Rose Wardlaw does the hard work in the crucial maids’ role, again bringing some strong clowning into play and engaging with the audience from the opening scene and bringing the laughter out, her innocent working-class ethics contrasting nicely with the provincial and parochial decadence on show.
The dénouements are dealt with as farce which is the best way and it’s over in the flash with the final scene allowing the set to be enjoyed one final time before the veil & final curtain descends.
Now on national tour.