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NOËL COWARD PLAY A DELIGHTFUL COMEDY

I have not seen anything like it for such a long time that I am not sure where to begin. I always thought that Noël Coward was a little too repetitive and rare in his comedy, but I was most pleased by the Caribbeanised adaptation of his play Blithe Spirit, which was staged by the Gale Theatre of London and Barbados at Frank Collymore Hall over the last two weeks.

The Gale Theatre, as it suggests, is a combination of London professionals and local dramatic talent seldom seen in such brilliant co-operation.

The lead wife, for instance, is played by Alphonsia Emmanuel, whom we have seen in her various TV roles in our living rooms, while the medium is played by Lorna Gayle, a London-based Jamaican for whom the role was specifically adapted. The background music was also Caribbean, as was the décor, shifted as it was from an English drawing room to a Caribbean garden patio replete with local flora.
Blithe Spirit is about a man who, having lost his wife prematurely, remarries. All goes well until he invited a medium (not a fortune teller) to his house in an effort to gain access to a character he intends to create in his next literary work.

He wants to write about a criminal-minded medium, so he invites Madam Arcati (the medium) to a dinner party along with the local medical doctor and his wife. All goes well until the medium is persuaded to do her stuff. She falls into a trance, and although everyone believes she is a fraud, when the party is over, the dead wife reappears and is only visible to the husband.

The ensuing relationship between the writer and his two wives is the basis for the comedy. The acting was delightful. It would be almost insidious to point the skill of any particular player. They were all that good.

However, special Kudos must be paid to both the director/adaptor of the play Glen Walford, and to Ms Gayle who played the role of the medium from Kingston. She was brilliant and entertaining. Her skills as a comedian were essential to the success of the play.

The three other lead characters of the play, the writer and his two wives, were equally entertaining. A special word has to be said for the maid, Ayesha Gibson, of North South soap fame, who turns out to be much more than a minor player in Blithe Spirit. She was brilliant in her combination of hectic running around the house and the calm striding mandated by her mistress. Her crucial role at the end of the play is carefully hidden right up to that point, so I dare not reveal it. But she does both with aplomb.

The play ended on Monday but it was worth seeing by one and all. It marked a return to theatre of a standard that I have not seen for decades in Barbados. I sincerely hope that the Gale Theatre of London and Barbados grows from strength to strength and the public attends everything they do.
If this is the level of quality entertainment they are capable of I certainly want more.

A review by Orlando Marville

See photos of the 2007 season