A new production of Blithe Spirit by one of Canberra’s brightest young directors, Lachlan Houen, is unashamedly setting out to make people laugh, reports arts editor HELEN MUSA. 

Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is one of the most enduring plays on the stages of Canberra.

Apart from professional touring productions, including one in 1987 starring the late June Salter as Madam Arcati, there have been several in recent years, including one directed by Colin Anderson for Rep in 1994, another in Theatre 3 by Supa Productions in 2005 and one more by Canberra Rep in 2014. 

Now, a new production by one of Canberra’s brightest young directors, Lachlan Houen, is unashamedly setting out to make people laugh.

Houen has been seized by the realisation that while our staged practitioners are busy grappling with the big questions of the time, audiences are desperate for a bit of fun, and even more so since the show opens just before the federal election.

It’s not all that different from Coward, who was appealing to British audiences ground down by the war when Blithe Spirit was first staged in 1941.

Time for a quick precis. Novelist Charles, looking for writing fodder, invites the medium Madam Arcati to conduct a séance. When she conjures up the spirit of his formidable first wife Elvira, his present wife Ruth is none too pleased and all hell breaks loose.

The play, partly built around the archetypes of warring wives, is also a comedy about ghosts, but it wouldn’t do to take that too seriously, Houen says, and while there is a spiritualist in the show, it’s not about spiritualism. 

With bright, eclectic new costumes by Susan Cooper and a set design by Michael Sparks and Andrew Kay – the latter designed the set for the show in 2014 – Houen hopes the production will be “bouncing”.

It has to be, for when the poltergeists take hold, objects quite literally start bouncing off the walls of the set, providing one big headache for Sparks and Kay as well as stage manager Lucy van Dooren, props-mistress Gail Cantle and set co-ordinator Russell Brown. 

Blithe Spirit takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Ode to a Skylark and there’s a fair bit of skylarking around as the straight man of the show, Charles, played for the second time by Peter Holland, is turned upon by his two ghostly but contrasting wives Ruth (Alex McPherson) and Elvira (Winsome Ogilvie). The none-too-heroic Charles tries to work out how to get away from them.

Enter veteran Canberra actor Elaine Noon, who plays the plum role of Madam Arcati, the spiritualist. Through her good offices and a bit of luck, in the middle of a séance, she is amazed to find herself conjuring up the dead Elvira, who is determined to get her own back on Charles.

Noon, who first came to Canberra around 2001 after having performed in 17 shows for Mercury Theatre Wynnum in Brisbane, has been deeply involved in theatre here ever since, mostly for Rep. She has played an entertaining assortment of character roles, though none with quite so much character as Madam Arcati. 

“It is a pleasure to play this role,” Noon tells me, “Madam Arcati is so authentic and genuine, she absolutely believes in her abilities.” 

Canberra Rep’s copywriters have described her as a self-styled medium, but as we agree, she’s more than that – she actually pulls it off.

Noon notes that she takes her work as a medium seriously and is mortified when she’s called an amateur – “it’s not a word I can tolerate,” she says.

One quite delicious scene is where she manages to make contact with the ghostly Elvira.

“It’s very exciting that Elvira materialises just when the audience would be thinking Madam Arcati is crazy, she’s endearing,” Noon says.

Nobody in the cast has been doing much research on spiritualism. There’s no need to dig too deep, she cautions: “This play is meant to be light-hearted”. 

The focus has been more on technique and for a young director, Coward’s brilliant comedy is a tough assignment.

“The pacing is vital with Coward,” Houen says. “Drop the ball and the momentum is gone.”

Blithe Spirit, Canberra Rep Theatre, Acton, May 1-17.

 

Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit is one of the most enduring plays on the stages of Canberra.

Apart from professional touring productions, including one in 1987 starring the late June Salter as Madam Arcati, there have been several in recent years, including one directed by Colin Anderson for Rep in 1994, another in Theatre 3 by Supa Productions in 2005 and one more by Canberra Rep in 2014. 

Now, a new production by one of Canberra’s brightest young directors, Lachlan Houen, is unashamedly setting out to make people laugh.

Houen has been seized by the realisation that while our staged practitioners are busy grappling with the big questions of the time, audiences are desperate for a bit of fun, and even more so since the show opens just before the federal election.

It’s not all that different from Coward, who was appealing to British audiences ground down by the war when Blithe Spirit was first staged in 1941.

Time for a quick precis. Novelist Charles, looking for writing fodder, invites the medium Madam Arcati to conduct a séance. When she conjures up the spirit of his formidable first wife Elvira, his present wife Ruth is none too pleased and all hell breaks loose.

The play, partly built around the archetypes of warring wives, is also a comedy about ghosts, but it wouldn’t do to take that too seriously, Houen says, and while there is a spiritualist in the show, it’s not about spiritualism. 

With bright, eclectic new costumes by Susan Cooper and a set design by Michael Sparks and Andrew Kay – the latter designed the set for the show in 2014 – Houen hopes the production will be “bouncing”.

It has to be, for when the poltergeists take hold, objects quite literally start bouncing off the walls of the set, providing one big headache for Sparks and Kay as well as stage manager Lucy van Dooren, props-mistress Gail Cantle and set co-ordinator Russell Brown. 

Blithe Spirit takes its title from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem, Ode to a Skylark and there’s a fair bit of skylarking around as the straight man of the show, Charles, played for the second time by Peter Holland, is turned upon by his two ghostly but contrasting wives Ruth (Alex McPherson) and Elvira (Winsome Ogilvie). The none-too-heroic Charles tries to work out how to get away from them.

Enter veteran Canberra actor Elaine Noon, who plays the plum role of Madam Arcati, the spiritualist. Through her good offices and a bit of luck, in the middle of a séance, she is amazed to find herself conjuring up the dead Elvira, who is determined to get her own back on Charles.

Noon, who first came to Canberra around 2001 after having performed in 17 shows for Mercury Theatre Wynnum in Brisbane, has been deeply involved in theatre here ever since, mostly for Rep. She has played an entertaining assortment of character roles, though none with quite so much character as Madam Arcati. 

“It is a pleasure to play this role,” Noon tells me, “Madam Arcati is so authentic and genuine, she absolutely believes in her abilities.” 

Canberra Rep’s copywriters have described her as a self-styled medium, but as we agree, she’s more than that – she actually pulls it off.

Noon notes that she takes her work as a medium seriously and is mortified when she’s called an amateur – “it’s not a word I can tolerate,” she says.

One quite delicious scene is where she manages to make contact with the ghostly Elvira.

“It’s very exciting that Elvira materialises just when the audience would be thinking Madam Arcati is crazy, she’s endearing,” Noon says.

Nobody in the cast has been doing much research on spiritualism. There’s no need to dig too deep, she cautions: “This play is meant to be light-hearted”. 

The focus has been more on technique and for a young director, Coward’s brilliant comedy is a tough assignment.

“The pacing is vital with Coward,” Houen says. “Drop the ball and the momentum is gone.”

Blithe Spirit, Canberra Rep Theatre, Acton, May 1-17.