Skip to main content

Blithe Spirit

Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Four Stars

More than one ghost needs purging in Pitlochry Festival Theatre's revival of Noel Coward's brittle satire of the spirit world. Gemma Fairlie's production updates Coward's cut-glass society of poshos at play to today, as parasitic writer Charles and his prim second wife Ruth decide to host a séance overseen by village eccentric Madame Arcati with their equally well-heeled chums.

The idea is to mine her for material while slumming it with the common people as if Arcati’s mediumship is a parlour game for cheap thrills. When things go wrong, however, and Madame Arcati inadvertently conjures up the scarlet-clad spirit of Charles' drop-dead first wife Elvira, chaos ensues beyond the bantz that will have life - and death - changing consequences for all.

It's a bold angle Fairlie has gone for against the pristine plushness of Adrian Rees' luxury apartment set. With a mobile phone brought out here, and a Uri Geller reference there, most of it pays dividends. As Madame Arcati, Deirdre Davis is a wild-haired hippy hangover, who is first mocked, then indulged then finally taken seriously by those dabbling with things they'll never understand.

Ali Watt’s Charles is the sort of philandering brat who's looks like he might well throw his hat in the ring to lead the Tory party. As his wives, Claire Dargo's Ruth and Barbara Hockaday's Elvira are two sides of the same trust fund sourced coin, sparring for Charles' attention like debutantes stalking a prince. Coward's scene-stealing servant Edith is reimagined as Eddie, a nice but dim hunk of uselessness played by David Rankine, who skips around to sound designer Paul Falconer's play-list of spooky cult classics with the sort of blank-faced abandon and limited intellectual assets that suggests he'll go far.

Only the overly formal politesse of exchanges involving double-dating couple Dr and Mrs Bradman don't quite make it to the modern world, despite a game effort by Harry Long and Tilly-Mae Millbrook at making the most of their underwritten roles. While it never quite goes for the jugular, death becomes everyone onstage in a class-conscious take on Coward that breaks on through to the other side.

The Herald, June 28th 2019

Ends



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ron Butlin - The Sound of My Voice

When Ron Butlin saw a man who’d just asked him the time throw himself under a train on the Paris Metro, it was a turning point in how his 1987 novel, The Sound Of My Voice, would turn out. Twenty years on, Butlin’s tale of suburban family man Morris Magellan’s existential crisis and his subsequent slide into alcoholism is regarded as a lost classic. Prime material, then, for the very intimate stage adaptation which opens in the Citizens Theatre’s tiny Stalls Studio tonight. “I had this friend in London who was an alcoholic,” Butlin recalls. “He would go off to work in the civil service in the morning looking absolutely immaculate. Then at night we’d meet, and he’s get mega-blootered, then go home and continue drinking and end up in a really bad state. I remember staying over one night, and he’d emerge from his room looking immaculate again. There was this huge contrast between what was going on outside and what was going on inside.” We’re sitting in a café on Edinburgh’s south sid

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) 1. THE STONE ROSES    Don’t Stop ( Silvertone   ORE   1989) The trip didn’t quite start here for what sounds like Waterfall played backwards on The Stone Roses’ era-defining eponymous debut album, but it sounds

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) 1. THE REZILL