The Michigan Daily-Saturday, July 12, 1980-Page 9
Arts 7
Summer Rep's 'Spirit' runs 'high
By ANNE GADON
So far the U-M's summer theatre of-
ferings have been dominated by
ethereal forces. Following the Wed-
nesday night opening of A Midsummer
Night's Dream is Noel Coward's
comedy about the occult, Blithe Spirit,
both performed by the members of the
Michigan Repertory Company of the
Departmentof TheatreandDrama.
The "Blithe Spirit" of Coward's play
is the deceased wife of the novelist
Charles Columbine. Columbine is
writing a mystery novel on a homocidial
female medium. He invites Madame
Arcati, a local eccentric who claims to
communicate with the spirit world, to
lead a seance in his home so he may use
her name as a source of inspiration for
his book. Elvira, Columbine's former.
wife, answers Arcati's call to the world
of the dead and decided to pay her
living husband a visit to the distress of
his new wife, Ruth. What results is a
competition between the two wives for
their husband's affection.
DESPITE THE light tone that
prevails through Coward's work, he
deplores the values upheld by the upper
crust Britons that comprised his
associates. His characters are shallow
and egocentric. They exist merely for
pleasure.
Charles displays this callousness
when Madame Arcati attempts to ex-
plain to him what the power of his
previously professed love for his two
wives can do when he interjects, "I
must confess to you frankly that
although my affection for both Elvira
and Ruth is of the warmest I cannot
truthfully feel that it would come under
the heading you describe," that is, love.
The success of Blith Spirit is depen-
dent upon the actors' handling of the
light dialogue and their ability to con-
vey the supercilious attitude of British
society. The members of the Michigan
Repertory company seem more at
home with Coward's crisp language
than they do with the classical dialogue
of Shakespeare, but none of them, with
the exception of Jon Hallquist, are
masters of the highbrow British style of
performance. They succeed more by
their own enthusiasm than proficiency.
HALLQUIST, as the waspish Colum-
bine, revels in suavity. When he
realizes that he cannot get Elvira to
return to wherever she came from, he
proposes to Ruth that they expand their
marriage to a menage a trois. As Ruth
expresses her horror Hallquist smiles
blissfully, fantasizing about life with
two women at his disposal. He is the
prototype of the Coward hedonist
wallowing in selfindulgence and
emerging unscathed.
Terry Hallquist, is delightfully
glacial as Ruth Columbine, Charles'
second wife. At times she has an odd
habit of speaking her lines double-time,
as if the accelerated pace will increase
the humor of her dialogue. But she is at
her best when she is slowly stabbing
Columbine with Coward's barbs, "Just
because you've been dominated by
women all your life doesn't mean that
you know all about them."
As Elvira, Ellen Sandweiss is a catty
contrast to Hallquist's Ruth. Her child-
like flouncing is sometimes too
energetic. Sandweiss throws herself
about the stage as if she were in a tum-
bling meet, plopping into chairs with an
uncharacteristic look of poise. She has
taken Elvira's petulance too far, as if
she were always on the edge of a tem-
per tantrum.
Cynthia Meier cuts an exotic figure
as Madame Arcati the eccentric
medium. Meier displays just the right
touch of flamboyance as she collapses
over tables into trances or paces the
stage in her African hunting suit, grip-
ping butterfly nets as if her life depen-
ded on it. Her enthusiastic nature con-
trasts nicely with the stiff upper lips of
her fellow performers.
Technical director David M. Ziolko
has worked magic with special effects.
Doors open mysteriously, books fly off
shelves, and several other feats without
the slightest sign of assistance. John D.
Woodland's set mirrors an English
country house down to the last, knick-
knack and Sheradi Cannon displays her
adeptness at costuming period plays
which she previously displayed in the
Ann Arbor Civic Theatre's production
of Lady Lambert.
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