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By Michael Hixon
19 Oct 2008 |
Stepping Out
Spirited Return |
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| Kimberly Patterson (Ruth), Meredith Rensa (Elvira) and Don Fowler (Charles) star in ‘Blithe Spirit.’ (photo by Alyssa Brennan) |
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In the play “Blithe Spirit,” Charles is caught between two wives: his current wife, Ruth, with whom he has a comfortable marriage, and Elvira, who comes back from the dead to wreak havoc on her earthbound husband’s life.
In Noel Coward’s play, which debuted in London in 1941, Charles hires an eccentric medium to entertain his wife and their friends with a s/ance as well as to do research for a book he’s writing. But unbeknownst to Charles, his deceased wife is summoned, causing the shock of his life and throwing his marriage into turmoil.
What causes even more headache for Charles in “Blithe Spirit,” which opens this week at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse, is the fact that he is the only one who can hear or speak to her.
“That puts him in a precarious situation with his living wife who doesn’t really believe him, and his dead wife who wants all of his time and attention,” said Don Fowler, who plays Charles. “It would be quite a problem if they were living as well but it’s even more difficult when one’s dead and nobody believes you.”
On the other hand, Ruth (Kimberly Patterson) feels their marriage is “fine” but doesn’t believe in the supernatural when strange things start happening after the s/ance.
“I’m dealing with the fact that my husband is being a jerk and trying to make me look like a fool or he’s going crazy because, of course, it’s absolutely not a possibility that really something happened at the s/ance,” said Patterson. “So (I’m) having to come to terms with something that actually did happen and a woman who’s diametrically opposed to everything I am is now living in my house and I can’t see or hear her.”
Elvira, according to actress Meredith Rensa, is a “touch on the sociopathic side.”
“There’s a definite childlike quality to her, and she is very focused on her wants and wishes,” Rensa said. “She’s almost playing games all the time with her life and the people in it and she’s very mischievous. (She thinks) ‘I came back and I want to kill him and take him with me.’”
According to Stephanie Coltrin, “Blithe Spirit” is still as fresh, although set in a time warp, as it was when it debuted 67 years ago during World War II. But controversy did surround Coward’s work.
“Everyone was upset that he was laughing at death and then of course it ran 1,947 performances on the West End because he understood that one way to deal with death was to laugh, which he did,” Coltrin said. “London was being bombed by the Germans at the time and there was a note in the program that said, ‘If there is a bombing during the performance, feel free to leave the theater but the performance will continue.’ He wrote it at a very specific time. Some people update the show but it didn’t work. It has to be set during the period.”
Fowler added, “There’s something theatrical about the time that it’s set in and his language that you go to the theater for an evening and what you get is transported back to a place where people behaved differently, spoke differently, walked differently. It’s wonderful to watch and it’s fun to be part of. I don’t think it needs to be a modern story. It’s a story told in the time that it belongs.”
Patterson said acting in a Coward play is like having a Cole Porter song come alive because the language is “fast-paced and witty.”
“When you’re going that fast with the words, emotionally and acting-wise, so many things happen because you don’t have time to think about it, you’re spitting out lines so all kinds of things happen,” Patterson said. “The way you never planned to say a line, it just comes out, so there’s this air of never knowing what’s going to happen. It makes it exciting.”
“Blithe Spirit” also stars Sara Morgeson as Madame Arcati as well as Suzanne Dean, Suzanne Petrela and Darrell Philip.
“Blithe Spirit,” which closes Oct. 26, runs Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. with one performance Sunday, Oct. 19, at 7 p.m.
The Hermosa Beach Playhouse is located at 710 Pier Ave. For more information, visit www.hermosabeachplayhouse.com or call (310) 372-4477.
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