{"id":7434,"date":"2018-08-23T06:29:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T10:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7434"},"modified":"2018-09-11T08:22:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T12:22:16","slug":"blithe-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7434","title":{"rendered":"Blithe Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Blithe

Brent Harris, Kate MacCluggage, Tina Stafford; photo: Jerry Dalia<\/p><\/div>\n

Conceived during London\u2019s 1941 Blitz and brought to the page in a six-day writing frenzy, No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s quirky comedy Blithe Spirit<\/em> was meant to counteract the gloom overtaking the country as battlefield deaths mounted and national collapse seemed possible. It became one of the West End\u2019s longest running non-musical productions, with almost 2,000 performances.<\/p>\n

The version currently at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey<\/a>, on stage through September 2, once again proves this work\u2019s lasting ability to appeal. With spirited direction by Victoria Mack, it moves along briskly, retaining Coward\u2019s farcical elements, though for me, at least, condensing some of that would be appreciated. A bit of business funny the first time isn\u2019t as amusing on the fourth or fifth go.<\/p>\n

Still, the author\u2019s ability to craft a witty epigram that seems perfectly apt seventy years later is firmly intact. My favorite, out of the mouth of Charles Condomine: \u201cIt is discouraging how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles, the husband of the story (played by Brent Harris), lives apparently quite happily with his wife Ruth (Kate MacCluggage) in elegant, upperclass English drawing-room style. With unreliable assistance from their well-intentioned maid Edith (Bethany Kay), they put on a dinner party for friends.<\/p>\n

The party entertainment will be a s\u00e9ance conducted by a local spiritualist, Madame Arcati (Tina Stafford). What seemed a harmless bit of fun unexpectedly conjures the ghost of Charles\u2019s first wife Elvira (Susan Maris), whom only Charles can see and hear. She interacts with him, though for everyone else, his reactions to her are inexplicable (too many martinis?). He tries to pass them off as a joke.<\/p>\n

Intent on disrupting Charles\u2019s current marriage by one means or another, Elvira is a devious and unsympathetic character. Coward thus avoided evoking the sadness that might have accompanied a play so concerned with the death of a young person. (Note that the play ends slightly differently than the movie version, in which Rex Harrison played Charles.)<\/p>\n

Harris, who was brilliant in STNJ\u2019s production of Tartuffe<\/em> earlier this season, shines again, and MacCluggage, as Ruth, extracts every bit of nuance from her character. Stafford and Kay both have the opportunity for broad physical comedy and make the most of it, delightfully. Somehow, the character of Elvira didn\u2019t work for me; she was so slinky and manipulative, it was hard to understand Charles\u2019s attraction, in either her corporeal or spiritual form.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey productions are hosted at Drew University in Madison, N.J. (easily reachable from NYC by train). For tickets, call the box office at 973-408-5600 or visit http:\/\/www.shakespearenj.org<\/a>. Note that STNJ offers special ticket pricing of $30 for theatergoers under age 30!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conceived during London\u2019s 1941 Blitz and brought to the page in a six-day writing frenzy, No\u00ebl Coward\u2019s quirky comedy Blithe Spirit was meant to counteract the gloom overtaking the country as battlefield deaths mounted and national collapse seemed possible. It … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Blithe Spirit - end summer on a light note with Noel Coward's classic comedy Blithe Spirit on stage at Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[272,104,147],"tags":[1393,518,553],"class_list":["post-7434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comedy","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-blithe-spirit","tag-noel-coward","tag-shakespeare-theatre-of-new-jersey"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1VU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7436,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7434\/revisions\/7436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}