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By Laurie Heuston Mail Tribune September 23. 2014 10:22AM Randall Theatre presents 'Blithe Spirit' Actors Pam Ward and Jonathan Matthews, director Susan Aversa-Orrego and the rest of the crew at Randall Theatre worked fast to figure out how to stage playwright Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." Actors Pam Ward and Jonathan Matthews, director Susan Aversa-Orrego and the rest of the crew at Randall Theatre worked fast to figure out how to stage playwright Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit." The community theater group was set to produce an adaptation of Stephen King's "Misery," when three weeks into rehearsal King and the licensing company entered litigation over royalties, and all productions of "Misery" were ordered to cease and desist. "I worked on Noel Coward's 'Blithe Spirit' before," says director Aversa-Orrego. "I felt the new show could be prepared rather quickly. Pam and Jonathan agreed to the roles of Madame Arcati and Charles Condomine, respectively. That left five other roles to fill, and we found some amazing actors who agreed to take on the challenge of a very short rehearsal period." "Blithe Spirit" opens Friday, Sept. 26, with a reception at 6:30 p.m. and curtain at 7 p.m. at Randall Theatre, 10 Third St., Medford. Opening night tickets cost $20 and include beverages and appetizers. Other performances are set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, Thursdays through Saturdays, Oct. 2-4 and Oct. 9-11, and 1 p.m. Sundays, Sept. 28, Oct. 5 and Oct. 12. Tickets cost $15 for reserved seats. Pay-what-you-want-tickets are available 30 minutes before shows. Flex passes and group rates are available. "Written in 1941, 'Blithe Spirit' is probably the funniest ghost story ever constructed," Aversa-Orrego says.  Condomine is a novelist who is researching the occult for a new book, and he decides to invite eccentric medium Arcati to his home for a seance. The quirky, crazy Arcati somehow manages to conjure up Condomine's first wife, Elvira, who disrupts the entire household and drives his second wife, Ruth, to hysteria. "The situation is silly enough," Aversa-Orrego says. "But the true delight of the play is the dialogue Coward has constructed. The veneer of upper-crust of society crumbles as the barbed lines fly back and forth between characters. Ruth and Charles, once so superior and smug, are reduced to silly squabbling as Elvira designs her plan to get Charles to the other side for eternity." Victoria Simone Stewart plays Ruth, Stephanie Jones plays Elvira, Timothy Kelly plays Dr. Bradman, Becky Durango plays Mrs. Radman and Courtney Crawford plays the cockney housemaid, Edith.  Elvira and Charles experienced a heated, tempestuous love affair — along with a few on the side — that probably wouldn't have endured, but was great while it lasted. As they rehash what went wrong with their marriage, it becomes clear that their love was more of an idealized relationship than a real one. It's really too late to repair the damage, but they try to make one another take responsibility for it anyway.    "The futility of trying to fix a marriage when one of the party has passed over provides some of the best moments of the play," Aversa-Orrego says.   Charles' and Ruth's second marriage is not the "first, fine careless rapture," as Charles says in the script. It's a quieter, more comfortable love that enables him to live a peaceful existence while working on his novels. That peace, though, is thoroughly managed by Ruth, who takes over the household affairs and dominates him. He consents without protest because he doesn't have as much of an emotional stake in the game. As long as his life goes along happily and he doesn't have to think about it, the marriage works.   The fun starts as the marriage's faults are revealed while Elvira manipulates him.   "Putting these two relationships together and contrasting how Charles relates to both of these women drives the play to its crazy conclusion," Aversa-Orrego says.   Coward wrote his funny ghost story during the destruction of World War II, making him the subject of some criticism, Aversa-Orrego says. The playwright merely commented that "as the story was thoroughly heartless, you can't sympathize with any of them."   His characters best come to life when they're self-absorbed and selfish, because it allows audiences the opportunity for rich, heartfelt laughter, she says. http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20140923/ENTERTAINMENT/140929851 © 2015 Copyright © 1995-2011 Crain Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use Privacy Statement -->