The theatre company’s production of a Noël Coward favorite profits from a rich cast and taut direction
There’s a good reason why British playwright Noël Coward’s other-worldly comedy Blithe Spirit continues to be produced over 80 years after its premiere: It’s still damned funny, operating on multiple levels of comedy ranging from bone-dry wit to physical bits approaching slapstick. This production from Denver’s Firehouse Theater Company is particularly well done, with a bang-up cast led by director M. Curtis Grittner. In addition to a directorial resume a mile long, Grittner is also a choreographer and an award-winning scenic designer, and all of those attributes are in abundant display in the production now showing at the John Hand Theater.
Coward’s play starts off like many an English drawing-room comedy, with a well-dressed couple trading barbs whilst powering down martinis as they await the guests. As Charles and Ruth Condomine, Jeff Jesmer and Miranda Byers are a delight, deftly dispensing words like “puerile” and “irascible” as they try to rein in the hapless help Edith (Lydia Thompson). Charles is a novelist looking for inspiration for his next book, and he wants to experience a séance. To do so, he throws a dinner party and invites a local medium, the batty Madame Arcati (Deborah Curtis) as well as a doctor friend George (John Greene) and his wife Violet (Monica Toole).
It takes a little while to get the party going, but once it does Blithe Spirit takes off with all the bullshit trappings of a séance: the rapping replies, supposed manifestations, fainting spells and flickering lights. When Madame Arcati takes her leave after a raucous bit of paranormal mumbo-jumbo, they all burst out laughing at the ludicrousness of it all.
Charles must deal with two wives, one dead and one living. (L-R) Kelly Uhlenhopp, Miranda Byers and Jeff Jesmer | Soular Radiant Photography – Meghan Ralph
That is, save Charles: The twist here is that it turns out to be quite real, and his late wife, Elvira, seven years gone, has arrived to shake things up — although only he can see and hear her. Curtis is tremendous as the wackadoodle medium whose puffery about her “gift” is, up until now, all show. When brought back for consultation about what to do with the spirit, she’s as surprised as Charles and Ruth that Elvira has returned. What’s more, she has no earthly (or heavenly) idea how to send her back.
As the title implies, Elvira is a spirit who gives zero fucks about how her presence might disrupt the marriage of Charles and Ruth. And after all those years in the netherworld, she’s ready to resume her place next to his side and, as she says, “to hell with Ruth!”
Elvira is played by Denver favorite Kelly Uhlenhopp — a bigger-than-life actor who’s found here a near-perfect role for her brassy, bossy mien. With a silvery pageboy wig, pale makeup and a flowing and revealing dress, Elvira is as mischievous as Pan. Uhlenhopp looks suitably sultry in her costume and has a field day with the character, mining all the funny from a woman who’s still in love with Charles but also quite happy to watch him squirm.
Grittner’s challenge was to find another actor who wouldn’t get subsumed by all that Uhlenhoppery, and he found her in Byers. Petite with striking looks and green eyes, she may not seem a formidable opponent, but she gives as good as she gets and commands the stage with a pro’s aplomb. When the two wives ultimately start working together, it’s really quite a treat to see Uhlenhopp and Byers work their magic on stage. I’d love to see them in another show together someday soon.
As the two go at it with poor Charles in the middle, the play really gets rolling as the comic possibilities continue to expand. Jeffers is quite good as the frazzled husband of now two wives who really just wants to get back to his writing with another martini — or perhaps a super-sized glass of sherry. (Despite drinking enough during the party to drown a horse, he claims to have no hangover whatsoever when he’s trying to explain the Elvira situation to Ruth, who simply thinks he was drunk.)
Director props
This is one of those shows where the hand of the director is literally front and center. Grittner’s set is as nice a piece of work as anything you’ll see in such a small space. Every stick of furniture and nearly every prop is used at some point, and while there’s a lot going on, that economy keeps things from looking too busy. His experience as a choreographer also comes to the fore with a splendid array of blocking that has the characters always moving deliberately, quickly and in tight control — often to comic effect. Starting off with a talented cast, he teases memorable performances from all of them and the ensemble does plenty of justice to Coward’s script.
As the plot races towards answering the question of how to get not one but two spirits back to the other side (no spoilers here), Grittner spares no stage trick to have fun with it all. As Halloween nears, Blithe Spirit is in its groove as a slightly scary but very funny take on the timeless story of dead people coming back from the grave to wreak havoc among the living.
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