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By Tom Fitt
16 Oct 2008 |
Easy Week
A Blithe Visit to '40s Comedy |
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sara borgeson (madame arcate)
photo alysa brennan |
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A comedy opens this week at the Hermosa Beach Playhouse. It’s about death and unwanted visits by spirits of the recently departed. Some of the plot deals with lousy marital relationships, past and present. Oh, and by the way, the original production debuted in London as the Germans launched their blitzkrieg during World War II. Funny stuff, huh?
Well, it was (and is) when a writer named Noel Coward pens the show. “Blithe Spirit” officially opens Friday (preview tonight). The auspicious 1941 premiere – theatrical renderings about death weren’t exactly encouraged in Great Britain at the time, what with all the bombs and things blowing up all around – began a record-setting run of 1,997 consecutive performances, a number for a non-musical play that wasn’t surpassed in the London theater for 30 years. Coward said he wrote the entire script while on a five-day vacation.
The plot is about socialite Charles Condomine (Don Fowler) who, following a séance with the seemingly eccentric medium Madame Arcati (Sara Borgeson), is incessantly haunted by the ghost of his first wife, Elvira (Meredith Rensa). Elvira isn’t pleased with Charles’ new spouse, Ruth (Kimberly Patterson), and is intent on working her unworldly ways against the marriage and happiness of the two. Other members of the seven-person cast at the Playhouse are Suzanne Dean, Suzanne Petrela and Darrell Philip.
Coward called the play a “farce,” but the theatrical world has since redefined the category. As with all Coward creations, the comedy is in the words – “You’ve got to listen closely to understand it,” said director Stephanie Coltrin. There are no pies in the face and the characters rarely run around the stage in the madcap fashion audiences have come to recognize as farce in 21st century theater.
The idea to resurrect “Blithe Spirit” in Hermosa came about when Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities founder and executive producer James Blackman suggested to his staff that a Halloween-appropriate show should be offered this month.
“We talked about a lot of plays, like ‘Deathtrap’ and others – that are all great plays – but I thought, I don’t know… What about ‘Blithe Spirit’? James said, ‘I love that movie (1945),’” said Coltrin. “It is just so funny. Coward is irreverent about everything.” Apparently, the brain trust of CLOSBC isn’t the only theatrical entity interested in Coward’s almost seven-decades-old comedy. There will be a Broadway 2009 revival directed by British stage master Michael Blakemore.
In casting the Hermosa production, Coltrin said that Sara Borgeson was an easy choice for the pivotal role of Madame Arcati. Coltrin explained that the part requires an understanding of the line between being silly and being believable. “And Sara is just great. She is inherently funny and we work daily on her portraying the balance that’s needed for the character,” said Coltrin.
Coltrin also pointed out that séances and characters like Arcati were common forms of home entertainment when Coward wrote this work.
“She (Arcati) is authentic in her own mind, except for some of the showmanship that’s required for the entertainment side of what she does,” said Borgeson. “Oftentimes, the people doing these séances, would get into the showman mode to make things bigger and better, when they really didn’t have to because something real was happening.
“But it was a party. They called it ‘Table Tapping.’”
Be assured, there will be much table tapping at the Hermosa Playhouse in the next two weeks. Furniture will move, voices will be heard, apparitions will become real. Some of the language and the jokes probably made more sense to 1940s’ audiences, but if you listen carefully, the dry humor of Noel Coward will be easily comprehensible. Enjoy this irreverent man’s work.
“Blithe Spirit,’ Hermosa Beach Playhouse, now thru Oct. 26. Tuesday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sundays at 2, with an additional Sunday performance at 7 p.m. Oct. 19. Tickets, $35-$45, can be purchased online at hermosabeachplayhouse.com or by calling 310-372-4477. ER
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