BLITHE SPIRIT

Reviewed by Michael E. Barrett of the San Antonio Express-News

The traveling Company Theatre is teaming with Little Italy for its latest dinner-and-a-show staging of "Blithe Spirit", a classic comedy –fantasy.

Conveniently, the whole play takes place in one living room of an English country house.  It belongs to the irascible Charles Condomine (Damian Gillen) and his second wife Ruth (Heather Kelley).  They are the kind of people who sit around having cocktails and exchanging witticisms while the work is done by their clumsy maid (Erin Polewski).

Charles is writing a novel about a phony medium who gets in touch with the spirit world, so he invites local town kook Madame Arcati (Ida Steele) to dinner to make notes on the tricks of the trade.  Other guests are Dr. Bradman (John Eubanks) and his tippling wife (Joan Fox).

The séance seems to be something of a bust until Charles' late wife Elvira (Lauren Kelly) shows up, though she can only be seen and heard by Charles. 

This material is light as a feather and serves as a showcase for characters to shout at each other and behave eccentrically, so everything rests on the actors' ability to play these roles broadly and amusingly, which they do.  Gillen and Kelley have the straightest roles, but they keep them properly cartoonish instead of serious; Gillen doesn't mug exactly, but his face is always mobile.

The showiest role is Madame Arcati, who gets to dance, faint and generally feel the spirit; sometimes the role is flighty buy Steele plays her as more of a grande dame mixed with aging hippie, and it works just as well.  Fox plays the doctor's wife broadly and gets laughs as she carries on.

As the pesky ghost, Kelly doesn't have much to do besides indulge in catty mischief.  Still, she's attractive enough to show why Charles might prefer to spend time with his less-corporal wife. As part of the absurdity and black humor, Noel Coward takes the plot in directions that may surprise an unsuspecting audience.

The ending isn't exactly the same as the classic movie version, but neither play nor film does exactly what you'd expect, which is probably why the material can still seem fresh. 

With a polished cast, this production is safely in the realm of entertaining dinner theatre. 

"Blithe Spirit" can be seen at 8pm Friday-Saturday; doors open for dinner at 6:45pm at Little Italy, 824 Afterglow.  Tickets range from $30 to $40 for the dinner/show package.  Call (800) 838-3006 for reservations.