This
delightful bit of British fluff, penned by Noel Coward, requires a light touch
and spot-on timing to keep the laughter bubbling for more than 2½ hours.
But
this wan production Blithe Spirit at Great lakes Theatre generates more faint smiles than
laugh-out-loud moments. With a couple notable exceptions, the actors and
director Charles Fee seem more intent on nailing a precise Coward-ian cadence
to the speech than in developing real characters we can relate to and laugh
with.
The
plot is, of course, a sure-fire winner, which is why this play is done so
often. The shallow and narcissistic novelist Charles is married to the tightly
wired Ruth, after he first wife Elvira passed away seven years earlier. And
now, Charles wants to learn more about the occult for his new tome, and he
invites a medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his house.
Unfortunately
for Charles, Elvira winds up being summoned from the depths and starts
occupying space in the drawing room where only Charles can see and hear her. Of
course, Elvira has skullduggery in mind and, in order to fetch her beloved
Charles to the other side, she sabotages his car. But someone else drives the
car, and hilarity ensues.
Or
so it should be. God knows, a couple of the actors do what they can to enliven
the proceedings. As Madame Arcati, Laurie Birmingham fashions a proud and
enthusiastic eccentric, thoroughly delighted at her ability to conjure ghosts
and bristling when anyone challenges her talents.
And
Shanara Gabrielle has some fluid, sensuous fun with Elvira, tweaking Charles
unmercifully and showing that the afterlife might be a fairly good place to be.
As long as one doesn’t sit around the house all day.
As
for Charles, the one character who is almost always on stage, Eric Damon Smith
doesn’t build a character the audience can enjoy. Instead of finding the humor
in Charles’ persona, Smith opts for playing his role line by line, smiling and
grimacing when appropriate but without any depth, and often rattling his lines
with machine-gun rapidity but little character-driven sense.
Smith’s
weak performance digs a hole large enough for Maggie Kettering, who plays his
wife Ruth, to fall into. While establishing Ruth’s stern and snappish attitude,
Kettering also feels more like an amalgam of ticks and mannerisms rather than a
living, breathing person.
In
the running (pun intended) gag that is the role of maid Edith, who dashes full
tilt everywhere she goes, Jodi Dominick and director Fee push the sight gags
until they moan for mercy. And
somehow, Dominck’s deadpan expressions don’t register as funny, just slightly
tragic.
Instead
of a light and airy confection, this Blithe
Spirit feels more like a leaden fruitcake, filled with bits of sweetness
that have gone chewy and stale.
Blithe
Spirit
Through
March 10 produced by Great Lakes Theater, Hanna Theatre, 2067 E. 14th
St., 216-241-6000
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