Mirvish presents a new production of Noel Coward’s play Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury in Toronto
Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit is a utter cream puff of a comedy, completely devoid of nutritive value, but perfectly scrumptious. In the sitting-room of novelist Charles Condomine, a dinner party culminates with the local medium summoning forth a visitor from beyond the veil: Condomine’s deceased first wife, who proceeds to ruin a vase, the party, and his marriage. Now cohabitating with both spouses, Charles tries desperately to send her back — but how do you dispatch someone who isn’t there?
What’s best about this production is that director Michael Blakemore isn’t afraid of hurting this creaky old play: most stagings (including recent outings at Stratford and Soulpepper) almost handle it as a museum artifact, to be exhibited but not played with, lest something get broken. Blakemore’s willingness to alter language and staging gives this version a modern edge and finds new jokes and insights in unexpected places. Moments which are meant to shock or scandalize the audience have a new resonance, while the marriages (Charles is turned into a “spectral bigamist”) acquire a tenderness which has been absent from these previous attempts.
