Lithe 'Blithe Spirit'

Photo by Pat Kirk

Simply, Divan: Charles Shaw Robinson
wilts in the presence of ghostly beauty.
Lise Bruneau.

San José Repertory Theatre

has no fear of Coward

By Heather Zimmerman

If Blithe Spirit were a dry martini, San José Repertory Theatre would have served up one nearly dry as a bone in its production of Noël Coward's classic comedy about the supernatural and the idle rich. The production conjures up a mood as jovial as a garden party while savoring Coward's subtly stinging caricatures of the British leisure class.

Novelist Charles Condomine (Charles Shaw Robinson) and his wife Ruth (Lorri Holt) host a seance at their country home, partly as research for Charles' new novel and also to enjoy a snicker or two at the village medium, Madame Arcati (Frances Lee McCain). But Charles and Ruth's comfortable if somewhat feckless relationship becomes a not-so-cozy tea for three when Charles' ravishing first wife, Elvira (Lise Bruneau) returns from the after-life during the seance.

Robinson and Holt are pomposity personified; even in their most heated arguments, they enunciate every syllable of the Queen's English in hilariously chirpy up-market tones. Bruneau brings an uncommon warmth and intelligence to Elvira that makes her instantly likable, despite some of her Machiavellian schemes. In a slinky dress and platinum wig, Bruneau's resemblance to Jean Harlow (another golden blonde who died young) is a great touch that makes her all the more sympathetic.

Some of the funniest moments come in the interaction between Charles and his two wives, with Elvira disparaging Ruth at every turn, Ruth insulting a rival she can neither see nor hear and Charles feebly mediating the whole mess. Timing is crucial, but the threesome misses not a single quip of Coward's wonderful wit. Adding to the fun are sporadic encounters with Edith (Adria Woomer-Stewart), the Condomines' wild-eyed, perpetually frazzled maid. In a play so reliant on words, the Rep's particular attention to dialect often adds much to the satire. Holt's stuffy intonations make Ruth's grand pronouncements even more ridiculous. Unfortunately, in other scenes, several actors get their lines mired in a tangle of overwrought British dialect.

Despite the play's obvious class-consciousness, Coward doesn't actually dwell on class issues and neither does the Rep, keeping it as the light--indeed almost ethereal--entertainment that this World War II-vintage work seems intended to be. Most interestingly however, is that the Rep has staged a production that, above all, celebrates Coward's genius way with words and not one that strives to out-do the decades of productions of Blithe Spirit that have come before it.

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Blithe Spirit plays Tuesday-Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 5 and 9pm, Sunday at 2 and 7pm, and Wednesday (Nov. 1) at noon, through Nov. 5 at the Montgomery Theater, Market and San Carlos streets, San Jose. Tickets are $16.50-$28.50. (408/291-2255)


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