Michelle Giroux (photo by David Hou)
High Spirits!
Stratford’s opening week ends with a triumph
by Stuart Munro
@StuartMunroTO
My week at Stratford has come to an end, and what an ending! The festival’s new production of Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit, directed by Brian Bedford, has all the fast-paced biting wit one would expect, and is presented with all the skill one hopes to see on stage at every outing.
In short, Blithe Spirit tells the story of Charles Condomine; his wife, Ruth; the psychic medium, Madame Arcati; and a seance gone horribly, horribly wrong. Over the three hours of the play, Charles must learn to deal with the unexpected result of that meeting and the following consequences.
Leading the company is festival perennial Ben Carlson. His dry wit, acerbic manner, and physical comedy make it clear that he is just as at home with Coward as he is with Schiller’s Mary Stuart – one would hardly recognize him between the two roles, so complete is the transformation. The same is true of Seana McKenna as the slightly-daft medium, Madame Arcati. The utter absurdity of her character is made completely believable by Ms. McKenna’s undeniable skill, and how anyone on stage with her manages to keep a straight face is utterly beyond me. As Ruth, Sara Topham took a little while to grow on me, but her hysterics in the second act completely won me over. Michelle Giroux’s Elvira was the picture of grace and sensibility (even in an impossible situation), and Susie Burnett’s Edith had the audience in stitches from the moment the curtain went up.
