Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” looks for laughs in two seemingly unrelated worlds.
There are the comic bombs woven into a story of marital strife, as the wives of Charles Condomine (Steven Cole Hughes) battle against each other. The stakes are mortally high as Ruth Condomine (Kate Berry) faces the wrath of Elvira (Heather Lacy), Charles’ ex-spouse. But the tension here isn’t a simple matter of a spurned wife looking to disrupt her ex’s matrimonial bliss. Elvira is waging her war from the bounds of the afterlife. Years after her death, she’s returned from the “other side” to reclaim her ex-husband and lure him into the world of the dead.
The tension between the stuffy living and the spurned dead is the central engine of Coward’s comedy, and director Rod Lansberry and the cast of the Arvada Center production juggle the dual dynamics of the show with skill. The show pairs the high-brow humor of an aristocratic home in Kent with the downright wacky antics of a ghost bent of revenge. Considering the show’s length (the production spans three acts and two intermissions), that constant balancing act is impressive.
Much of that balance comes in a solid sense of character from all the actors. The ensemble performance helps carry the action through some fairly bizarre places. Hughes offers a portrait of building panic and mania as his dead wife is channeled by Madame Arcati (Leslie O’Carroll), an eccentric medium who reaches into the world of the dead by means of the spirit of a deceased child. The entire project begins as a lark by Charles Condomine, a writer who’s looking to conduct research for a new book. He invites Arcati to his country house to conduct a séance, and he even has his friends Dr. George Bradman (Mark Rubald) and his wife Violet Bradman (Alex Ryder) join him for the antics. Edith (Boni McIntyre), the Condomine’s harried maid, offers easy laughs in her role as a stressed servant.
The light experiment quickly turns serious. Elvira shows up in the living room, a spirit clad in white that only Charles can see. The vision makes for some of the funniest moments of the play, as Hughes’ frantically shouts insults and exhortations at his ex in an effort to get her to disappear. Ruth, of course, gets the brunt of her husband’s mania. The phantom of Elvira quickly hatches plots to bring her ex to the spirit realm, a ploy that goes wrong immediately. Both Berry and Lacy are consummate in their skill portraying Charles’ battling spouses. Lacy is airy and eerie as Elvira, and Berry makes a dramatic transition from death to life with a veteran’s skill.
Charles Condomine quickly ends up with two ghosts of dead wives, and he draws on the skills of Madame Arcati to help find a measure of peace.
It’s a frantic, frenetic show, a comedy that combines high-brow wit with simple slapstick and silliness. The combination works here thanks to several standout moments. The most notable may be in the performance by O’Carroll, who is both studied and ridiculous as the eccentric psychic Madame Arcati. From the first séance scene to the frantic efforts to exorcise the house, O’Carroll offers constant energy and steady rounds of laughs. Indeed, the caricature helps ground the busy feel of Coward’s comedy and makes the action interesting across three acts.
That continuity also comes in important touches by the crew. There’s the subtle and creepy lighting work by Jon Olson and sound touches by Morgan McCauley that make the séance scenes come to life. Tasteful costume and makeup choices by Chris Campbell and Diana Ben-Kiki help delineate the differences between living and dead. Such seemingly small touches help the show keep an equal and funny footing between two different worlds.
“Blithe Spirit”
Runs through Feb. 17 at the Arvada Center, 6901 Wadsworth Blvd., Arvada.
Tickets start at $25.
Information: 720-898-7200 or arvadacenter.org.
3.5 stars
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com or 720-449-9707