OCTOBER 5, 2017 // 3
SCRATCHPAD
Present laughter at ‘Blithe Spirit’
By ERICK BENGEL
COAST WEEKEND
G
ood comedy is
famously known as a
high-wire act. Timing,
tone — everything must be
fi nely calibrated for a show
to be funny, for it to actually
work as comedy.
On Saturday, a friend and
I caught “Blithe Spirit,” now
running at Cannon Beach’s
Coaster Theatre. Noel Cow-
ard’s 1941 romantic comedy
tells the story of Charles,
coast
a married man who invites
a medium to perform a
séance at his home as part of
research for his book — and
the medium ends up con-
juring the ghost of Charles’
dead wife. It’s a play driven
by witty, screwball dialogue
that fl ies so fast it’s almost
impossible to catch every
joke.
I asked the actors if it’s a
challenge to keep a straight
face while people are laugh-
ing through their characters’
rapid-fi re repartee.
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FEATURE
COAST WEEKEND EDITOR
ERICK BENGEL
CALENDAR COORDINATOR
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“Only if something goes
wrong,” said Ellen Jensen,
who plays the dead wife’s
spirit. That is, only if some-
thing breaks the rhythm or
reality of the performance.
David Sweeney, who
plays Charles, said that, over
time, the actors get to know
where the likely laughs are,
and it becomes easier to an-
ticipate them without giving
away that they’re anticipating
them.
“The fi rst couple times
you have an audience, you
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don’t know exactly what
they’re going to respond
to, and then after a while it
becomes fairly clear what
are the sort of usual triggers
of laughs,” he said. “And
sometimes they’re things you
don’t expect.”
The challenge for Swee-
ney, he said, is “always to let
the audience decide, and not
try to telegraph, ‘I want you
to laugh now.’”
Every night is different,
because every audience is
different.
Karen Martin, who plays
the medium, said actors
tend to give better perfor-
mances, not when they have
the silence to concentrate,
but when the audience is
laughing at things meant to
be funny.
“If they’re really quiet,
that’s harder, because we
need the feedback to build
the energy,” she said.
It helps when at least
one audience member starts
laughing early on, because
the rest of the audience then
feels it has permission to
laugh, too. “A lot of people
are very shy about laughing
out loud,” she said.
What the actors hope for is
a joyous feedback loop: The
actors drawing laughter from
the audience, the laughter feed-
ing the actors’ performances.
So, if it’s a comedy, Martin
said, “Laugh! Out loud!”
On the night I saw
“Blithe Spirit,” theatergo-
ers — including me and my
friend — did laugh out loud,
and often. CW