Beehive Theatre Company gets into the comic spirit

If you want to escape from the drudgery of life, turn off that silly soap and make haste to see the Beehive's Blithe Spirit at The Studio, Cúilín, Dingle.

This is a light-hearted comedy that has at its nucleus two happy couples, Ruth and Charles and Dr and Mrs Bradman. All goes well until the eccentric Madame Arcati arrives and the fun begins!

The battle of the sexes is Noel Coward's comic forte and Malcolm George as Charles with Lucinda Cooke as Ruth create great sparring partners with sparkling delivery and timing. The ensuing ménage à trois with Norma Jean Kenny's powerful performance as 'the other woman' is the stuff of high comedy.

Camilla Dinkel's Madame Arcati is wonderfully dotty, bizarre and simply hilarious. Trish Hendrix as Mrs Bradman is a near hysterical creation with Mike O'Shea's gormless Dr Bradman as a powerful comic foil to the lead actors. Mags Nic Gabhann's début performance as the maid Edith is comedy itself. With a fantastic tripping gait, lowly demeanor and a deadpan expression, she's a show stopper. The costumes by Pat Foltz are excellent. The choice of music is evocative of the era but the set design falls a little bit flat and needs a bit more authenticity to fully create the atmosphere of the thirties.

This show provides a great fun night out and is suitable for nine year olds as well as ninety year olds. It opens Saturday night May 31st, 2003, at 8pm at Léirithe Lúnasa Studios, Cúilín, Dingle.

The Kerryman

Left to Right: Mags Nic Gabhainn, Trish Hendrix, Mike O' Shea, Lucinda Cooke, Camilla Dinkel, Malcolm George and Norma Jean Kenny.