This fall Ellie King again hits the stage in “Blithe Spirit,” a production that marks Royal Canadian Theatre Company‘s return to theatres in Surrey and New Westminster following a pandemic-caused pause.
In a pre-Halloween production suitable for spectators 12 and up, the Noel Coward-written comedy is “a fun and highly entertaining play featuring an irritable novelist, a nutty medium and a frivolous ghost,” King notes.
Royal Canadian’s founder and managing artistic director, King plays Madame Arcati in the show, staged at Surrey Arts Centre from Oct 15-17, followed by a run at New Westminster’s Anvil Centre Oct 22-23.
A Langley resident and longtime thespian, King is a 2013 Surrey Civic Treasure award winner best known for playing the “Shirley Valentine” role for 20 years at local theatres, and the Kerri Norris-directed production of “Blithe Spirit” features her return to the stage after several years of directing shows.
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From the golden age of English theatre, the script follows some very odd happenings one summer evening when the happily married author Charles Condomine (Dan Weber) invites the rather strange medium Madame Arcati (King) to conduct a séance in order to give him some insight for his next book. But poor old Charles gets a great deal more than he expects, and the results of the séance give a whole new meaning to the term “the other woman.”
Can he contain his charming, spectral wife from destroying the new life he’s built with his current wife, Ruth? Or will his life come crashing down around him?
Other characters/actors in the show are Ruth Condomine (played by Wendy Podgursky), Edith (Rachel Kent), Dr. Bradman (Darren Zimmer), Mrs. Bradman (Anna Wallace-Deering) and Elvira (Ivy Padmore).
Tickets range from $24.99 to $34.99 on rctheatreco.com. For Surrey show dates, visit tickets.surrey.ca or call 604-501-5566. Info about the New West run is on ticketsnw.ca, or dial 604-515-3850.
Later this season, the Royal Canadian company plans an “Alice in Wonderland” pantomime in December and a production of the comedy “The 39 Steps” next March.
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