Go see Blythe Spirit!

A a birthday present to my husband, I treated him to a trip to London to see Angela Lansbury in Blythe Spirit (at the Gielgud Theatre). The production has had rave reviews (in the Guardian and summarised by the BBC) so we had high expectations. And we were not disappointed.

The Noel Coward comedy was first performed in 1941 and has been revived regularly since (in the West End and on Broadway). 

The cast of this production included Charles Edwards as Charles (a novelist), Janie Dee as Ruth (Charles' second wife), Dame Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati (a medium they invite hold a seance), Jemima Rooper as Elviva (Charles' dead first wife) and Patsy Ferran as Charles' and Ruth's maid.

Madame Arcati is not the major female role, yet most people (if not everyone) was there to see Angela Lansbury. She got a round of applause the moment she appeared on stage (in fact the cast had to wait until it had died down before carrying on performing). Her performance was mesmerizing - at times a frail old lady, a crazy medium calling out and dancing (wonderfully) to summon spirits, a woman possessed by a spirit, a steel-eyed professional glaring at insults (if looks could kill!), and someone excited to finally be in the room with a ghost (or two).

All the publicity has been about her. In fact until we saw some pictures on the outside of the theatre, we had no idea who elses was in the cast. Yet they all managed to hold their own against her. Charles Edwards played Charles as very much the master of the house. Janie Dee made us believe that Ruth really couldn't see Elvira. Jemima Rooper's Elviva was flirty and floaty and a believable ghost. In particular, Patsy Ferran almost stole the show as the maid who runs everywhere.

I thoroughly recommend that everyone should go and see the show if they can. We went on a Monday night and there were still a few tickets available on the door.

After the show, we went to the stage door to see the cast leave. As did lots of other audience members. Most of the cast managed to leave with barely murmur from the crowd. But when the Dame wanted to leave, a security guard had to clear a pathway so that her car could drive up and she could get in. And in a wave of camera flashes she appeared. So it was only right that i took some pics too. However, only one of them was any good...