Brisbane review – Blithe Spirit: Villanova Calls up the Spirits

By Lilian Harrington

Production:  Blithe Spirit

Writer:           Noel Coward

Director:       Roslyn Johnson

Company:    Villanova Players

Location:      The Ron Hurley Theatre, 28 Tallowwood St., Seven Hills

Season:        17- 26 July 7. 30 pm Evg. Fri / Sat. and 2 pm Mat Sat / Sun.

Bookings:      info@villanovaplayers.com or call 0423920832

Popular British writer, composer, director, and singer, Noel Coward, has had a great influence on theatre repertoire over the years, and many theatre groups still enjoy revisiting his work and staging it for their local community. There seems to be something about the era and his style that is quite infectious, so this production of Blithe Spirit, although a tad long and quite wordy, for the modern audience, has certainly been one of his most popular plays. Villanova Players, under the direction of Roslyn Johnson, has certainly  created a positive theatre experience with this production.

Robyn Johnson, suggests that Coward’s craft gives an audience a master class in stage tricks, with the raised eyebrow, the quick wit and the crisp tongue -twisting insults, which are spoken by the very shallow upper class, who are quite recognizable English caricatures, described in the text, symbolic of the era, both in their manner and customs, all typical of the time. Her feeling is that Coward’s skillful technique of writing scripts, is still very pertinent to modern day.

Ian Johnson’s thoughtfully designed set, shows a typical English living-room interior, with a beautiful garden setting, along with hidden exits and entrances, and lovely costumes and accessories; the cast led by the tall Charles Condomine( Michael McNish) and Ruth Condomine ( Phoebe Wolfgang ), along with the delightful mystic, Madame Arcati ( Alison Pattison),who had come to dinner at Charles Invitation, and the well-played ghost, Elvira Condomine ( Kiah Latham ), have managed to bring the House of Condomine to life and create a very entertaining and interesting rendition of this classic play.

The production had flow and panache, but at times the dialogue and diction, was delivered in a style that was not always easy to follow, luckily, cast actions helped dictate the intention for the audience. There were some notable performances from Mrs. Violet Bradman (Jane Binstead), and Edith (Jade Davis), as the young maid. The audience responded with some excited anticipation when Elvira, the spirit, made her presence felt, because it was obvious that the former young bride of Charles Condomine, had been called back to the Condomine house and she was now there to cause some mischief to Charles and to wrought some disaster on him and his second wife Ruth.

 It was very entertaining to see how the eccentric mystic, Madame Arcati, tried so many times with her séances and routines to restore the house back to normal, and to get the spirit to leave the house for good, so she’d   no longer cause harm and destruction there, or further upset Charles Condomine’s mental health; Elvira tried to destroy the relationship between Charles and his wife Ruth, so she could win him back so she planned to arrange his death in a car accident.  Kiah Latham showed great character work as the spirited Elvira, who haunted the house and worked her supernatural talents to influence events in the natural world and so confuse those around her in the house. Edith, the youthful and comedic maid, is a very clever twist in the plot and Jade Davis, showed that her  secret skills and seemingly innocent actions, could lead to unforeseen consequences.

Blithe Spirit runs for a limited season at The Ron Hurley Theatre; it is a classic Coward, which is well worth seeing.