If Corrine Koslo’s 2025 take on Madame Arcati were to meet the Madame Arcati she played 20 years ago at the Citadel Theatre in Edmonton, what would she tell her?
The thought of this impossible interaction causes a grin to spread across the veteran Canadian actor’s face.
“I think I would have to say to her, ‘You know, you really don’t have to do so much jumping about. You can get away with perhaps less.’”
A beat. Koslo then adds, “But I think I would also say, ‘Well done.’”
Koslo’s first go at the iconic role in Noël Coward’s Blithe Spirit won her an Elizabeth Sterling Haynes Award for outstanding performance by an actress in a supporting role, so clearly she was doing something right. But that’s the beauty of having a long life in the theatre. You’re able to come at the same character from a completely different perspective.
“I’m still flying around a bit but I’m not, you know, leaping six feet into the air and things like that. And I don’t need to. Then, I did. That was who I was and that’s who I brought to the table,” said Koslo, who’s making her Theatre Calgary debut as Madame Arcati in a production playing until April 13 at the Max Bell Theatre in Arts Commons.
“But the script is the script. The story is the story. So it is quintessentially the same.”
Set in the British countryside in 1941, Blithe Spirit begins with novelist Charles Condomine and his current wife, Ruth, eagerly awaiting the arrival of three dinner party guests. First to arrive are their friends, Dr. and Mrs. Bradman. Then comes the guest of honour — the neighbourhood spiritualist and medium whom Charles invited to conduct a seance as a source of inspiration for his new book.
Enter the eccentric and boisterous Madame Arcati, on a bicycle.
Everyone assumes she’s a quack. That is until she unwittingly conjures up the spirit of Charles’ late wife, Elvira, surprising herself just as much as the others and throwing the entire world of Charles and Ruth into chaos.
“It’s so much fun,” said Koslo. “It’s such a brilliant, classical piece. And Madame Arcati is such a brilliantly written role.”
What Koslo loves most about the character is her ability to change on a dime in mid-air and still be grounded.
“That’s the difficult part of it, too,” she added. “To be absolutely open and clear with the immediacy of what’s coming at her at all times. All the characters. So much just flying at them.”
Koslo wasn’t shy to admit that playing this part was a lot easier the first time around, when she was in her 40s rather than 60s. That’s because it’s an extremely physical show, not just athletically but vocally as well.
“We’re not used to such athletic language,” she said. “You have to really be operating on all cylinders. And I think that’s the great joy for any actor and company to be attacking this kind of material.”
Koslo boiled down the story to just three words: marriage, love, and the afterlife.
Sticking with the power of three, Koslo said that director Nikki Loach and set designer Scott Reid have identified three distinct layers in the world of the play: the unnatural layer (where characters behave the way they “ought” to), the natural layer (where unrestrained desires come out to play), and the supernatural layer (where the spirits go about their business and observe their loved ones down on earth).
The supernatural layer, which Madame Arcati invites in, is the lifeblood of the show. It’s what causes secrets to be revealed, control to be lost, and rules to be broken. The circumstances are just so fantastical that everyone loses their way.
Koslo believes this production of Coward’s “beautiful homage to life and death” is coming at a perfect time.
“We right now, the world, are unsure what foot to put forward,” she said, alluding to the current political climate. “We’re getting battered down quite a bit. You know, on some days I feel like we’re on the precipice of something as monumental [as when the play was written].”
Coward wrote Blithe Spirit right smack in the middle of the Second World War, which was, of course, an incredibly difficult time. And people showed up in droves to see it. With 1,997 performances, the original production in London’s West End became the longest running non-musical British play.
Koslo has an image of the play being performed with bombs dropping.
“The world needed so much healing,” she said. “Everybody needed a place to go where they were all together and having a collective experience that wasn’t horrific.”
That place was the theatre.
Koslo sees the same healing potential in Theatre Calgary’s production. She hopes it helps audiences really remember what it’s like to enjoy themselves — to listen, to love, to laugh, to be surprised, and to allow the story to capture them, collectively.
“That is such a healing thing,” she said. “To just be taken away. It’s delicious. And this play is delicious. The words are delicious, the characters are delicious, the situations are delicious. It’s just a big, yummy meal. I think it will just allow everyone to have a moment of, ‘Phew, we’re all in the same boat. We can row together.’”
There’s one line in Blithe Spirit that suddenly made Koslo go, “Oh my goodness,” as she was delivering it in rehearsal: “We must never give up. Chin up. We must never give in.”
That’s Madame Arcati’s motto.
“And what a mantra for us all to carry with us right now,” said Koslo. “It’s powerful stuff.”
Blithe Spirit runs at Theatre Calgary until April 13. Tickets are available here.
WRITTEN BY
Magan Carty
Magan Carty is an actor turned journalist whose passion for the arts runs deep. They spent over a decade performing in theatre productions across Canada and are now working as a writer and producer for CBC Radio’s flagship national program, The Current. Magan lives in Toronto with their twin black cats, Juno and Lenny.
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