"Blithe Spirit" - by Noël Coward - Pasture Prime Players (Charlton, MA.) - REVIEW
(Cover Photo: The CAST of Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" presented by Pasture Prime Players in Charlton, MA. now playing through November 3, 2024. Photo Credit Victoria Konopacki)
By Kevin T. Baldwin
METRMAG Reviewer
# 774-242-6724
“You’re awfully irritating when you’re determined to be witty at all costs – almost supercilious."
- ("Ruth") / Noël Coward
Pasture Prime Players
Presents Noël Coward's
"BLITHE SPIRIT"
Written by Noël Coward
Directed by Stephen Jean
Producer Don Konopacki
Cast Includes: Cassidy Shaw as "Edith," Madeleine Waters as "Ruth," John Golden as "Charles," Mikey Dearn as "Dr. Bradman," Tey Gallipeau as "Mrs. Bradman," Carol Allard Vancil as "Madame Arcati," Erin Morin as "Daphne," Laura O'Brien as "Elvira."
Additional Creative Team:
Technical Director - Marty BlackEagle; Stage Manager - Erin Morin; Stage Hands - Victoria Konopacki, Abi Simpson; Costuming - CAST; Set Design - Stephen Jean, Don Konopacki; Set Construction - Stephen Jean, Don Konopacki, Matt Sedlier, Ducati Sedlier; Properties - Marty BlackEagle, Erin Morin, Stephen Jean, Don Konopacki; Lighting - Eric Hart; Sound - Marty BlackEagle; Program and Graphic Design - Tey Gallipeau, Don Konopacki; Photography - Victoria Konopacki
Performances:
October 25, 2024 through November 3, 2024
(Contact Box Office for Exact Times)
Performances to be held at Pasture Prime Players, 4 Dresser Hill Road, Charlton, MA.
TICKETS:
Reservations may be made by calling # 508-248-5448.
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COVID 19 PROTOCOLS
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Pasture Prime Players offers up a terrific, lively performance of "BLITHE SPIRIT" by Sir Noël Peirce Coward.
Subtitled as “An Improbable Farce in Three Acts,” from the outset, it should be noted Coward’s story is extremely dated and to best enjoy it, one must accept it as a product of its bygone era.
Coward’s writing has a droll, dry wit (dry as in arid as a desert) but "BLITHE SPIRIT" maintains a charm associated with watching an old black and white movie.
After a séance goes wrong, a writer must deal with the antics of his current wife, as well as the menacing ghost of his first wife.
(Photo: Cassidy Shaw as "Edith" tends to breakfast for John Golden as "Charles" and Madeleine Waters as "Ruth" in a scene from Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" presented by Pasture Prime Players in Charlton, MA. now playing through November 3, 2024. Photo Credit Victoria Konopacki)
"BLITHE SPIRIT" debuted in London’s West End in 1941 where it ran for a whopping 1,997 performances before closing in 1946.
The show would make its Broadway debut also in 1941 first at the Morosco Theatre, then moving to the Booth Theatre where it ran for 657 performances.
The Pasture Prime Players staging is set in Kent, London in 1937, and is performed by actors with an acceptable level of English accents.
Author Charles Condomine (John Golden) lives in a beautiful home in Kent, England with his second wife, Ruth (Madeleine Waters).
(Photo: Carol Allard Vancil as "Madame Arcati" conducts a séance with members of the CAST of Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" presented by Pasture Prime Players in Charlton, MA. now playing through November 3, 2024. Photo Credit Victoria Konopacki)
As events unfold, it is hard to “root” for the couple given their boorish personalities and lifestyle - but the actors, under the direction of Stephen Jean, do their best to make them a bit more relatable.
Golden impresses greatly as Charles, whose stodgy, stoic and completely patriarchal behavior soon gets sorely tested as the story progresses.
As Ruth, Waters provides a laudable performance as Charles’ second wife, although the character itself has an entitled, elitist, spoiled and immature demeanor. More on that later.
The couple has a loyal young maid named Edith (Cassidy Shaw) who is overly anxious to please her employers.
Shaw has some wildly funny moments as the disturbed domestic.
The duo has their equally boorish friends - Dr. Bradman and his wife (Mikey Dearn and Tey Gallipeau) - over for dinner and entertainment.
Dearn and Gallipeau offer up some fine performances as the couple but, outside of the show's first scene, are actually not on stage for all that long in order for us to really connect with them (Coward didn’t even bother to give “Mrs. Bradford” a first name).
(Photo: Mikey Dearn as "Dr. Bradman" with Tey Gallipeau as "Mrs. Bradman" in a scene from Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" presented by Pasture Prime Players in Charlton, MA. now playing through November 3, 2024. Photo Credit Victoria Konopacki)
The entertainment is in the form of a séance, conducted by eccentric medium Madame Arcati (Carol Allard Vancil).
The séance is preceded by conversations between Charles and Ruth about Charles' long-dead first wife, Elvira (pronounced "Elveera" and is played by Laura O’Brien) who passed on seven years earlier.
Vancil is simply a delight as the madcap medium Arcati, yielding a lot of laughs at nearly every turn.
While Charles and his guest anticipate a night of laughs, though, the night is also a working night for Charles.
Unknown to Arcati, Charles is having her conduct the séance as part of his research for a new novel he is writing.
As a result of the séance, though, Arcati actually conjures the spirit of Elvira and this is where the iconic Coward tale really takes off.
Laura O’Brien is completely on target as the impishly naughty spirit of Elvira.
As only Charles sees and interacts with her presence, Elvira wastes no time in causing mayhem between Charles and Ruth and these are some of the most humorous scenes in Coward’s play.
(Photo: Laura O'Brien as "Elvira" with John Golden as "Charles" in a scene from Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" presented by Pasture Prime Players in Charlton, MA. now playing through November 3, 2024. Photo Credit Victoria Konopacki)
On the positive side, and under the adept direction of Stephen Jean, the increasing tension resulting from the confrontational relationship between Elvira and Ruth, separated by an astral plane, lifts the humor to a new frenetic level.
On the negative side, though, and going back to the previously mentioned dated feel of the story, Elvira and Ruth, as written in Coward’s 80+ year-old text, both come across as culturally sophisticated but also quite immature, whiny and "child-like."
Charles occasionally treats them as if they are spoiled children more so than loving equal partners - so much so that, at times, we find ourselves actually yearning for his due comeuppance for his autocratic, chauvinist pomposity.
The Pasture Prime set is pleasing and functional and, while "BLITHE SPIRIT" is a long show, the pacing is solid and the timing required for set changes is brisk.
Costuming for the time-period is appropriate, although the men’s formal wear did seem a bit ill-fitted.
"BLITHE SPIRIT" from Pasture Prime Players continues in Charlton until November 3rd and, even given its anachronistic feel, it is still clever, funny and, ultimately, it is the collective performances which makes this production well worth seeing.
For tickets and reservations, call # 508-248-5448.
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Approximately two hours, 45 minutes with two intermissions.
Kevin T. Baldwin is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association (ATCA)
@MetrmagReviews
@Theatre_Critics
ABOUT THE SHOW
In Noël Coward's "BLITHE SPIRIT" in order to research material on the occult for his next book, novelist Charles Condomine and his wife Ruth host two of their friends for dinner and invite the eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to join them and finish off the evening with a séance.
Though the hosts are skeptical of Madame Arcati’s actual clairvoyance, the séance works and the spirit of Charles’ temperamental first wife, Elvira, returns from beyond the grave- at first just her voice, but then she just walks right in through the French doors.
Unhappy with the fact that Charles has remarried and remaining only able to be seen and heard by him and not Ruth, Elvira takes the opportunity to disrupt his marriage through a good old classic haunting.
Things take an even steeper turn when Elvira eventually makes an attempt on Charles’ life so that he may join her in the afterlife.
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ABOUT PASTURE PRIME PLAYERS
PASTURE PRIME PLAYERS, INC. is a volunteer regional theater organization based in Charlton, MA. and made up of a group of people from surrounding towns, who love the theater and the feeling of shared creativity experienced while taking part in a live stage production. It is the intent of the PASTURE PRIME PLAYERS to encourage the development of community theater in Southern Worcester County, to stage live theater performances for residents of the region, and to provide opportunities for everyone, especially amateurs and newcomers, in all aspects of stage production, be it lighting, advertising, set design, acting, music, financial management, design and publishing of programs, or any of the many tasks necessary for the successful production of plays.
