REVIEW - Spirit Level, Caxton Players, Caxton Theatre, 7th - 14th June 2025 - ****
- theatrereviews
- Jun 9
- 3 min read
Pam Valentine’s Spirit Level is an entertaining hybrid of the seminal Blithe Spirit and also classic, cosy traditional sitcoms, which isn’t altogether surprising, since, in her own former life, she scripted some of the best ITV sitcoms, most notably the Peggy Mount vehicle You’re Only Young Twice (1977-1981) and the Mollie Sugden hit That’s My Boy (1981-1986). She’s also written countless other plays. Currently playing at the Caxton Theatre is this strong farce, written in 2010, and, gloriously clichéd albeit slightly hackneyed in parts, it’s a well-constructed caper that fittingly harks back to a bygone era, while effectively bringing the medium (pun intended) into the 21st Century.
Dodging the plot spoilers left, right and centre, this is a sort of Blithe Spirit twice over – a double haunting that helps aspiring author Simon Willis (Michael Howard) in his search for words, and which gives the rest of us a healthy dollop of consistent chuckles. It’s another nicely rendered set from Caxton’s, with set design, complete with omnipresent French doors and drinks trolley that are synonymous with ‘classic farce’. It’s a country cottage based in the Yorkshire Dales, in which the late author Jack Cameron (Byron Young) did his writing and where he and his wife, Susie (Vivienne Sargent) are now obliged to remain because he is a card-carrying atheist and therefore not permitted into Heaven. The prankster Jack and the po-faced Susie hold terrific chemistry, essential for them to remain both likeable and believable in this escalating mystical hotchpotch. The couple seize their moments of pleasure by spooking the estate agent, played by Steve Skipworth, and frightening away any would-be tenants.
Simon and his chipper, chirpy wife Flic (Gemma Quickfall) are the initial, proverbial spanner in the works for Jack, when Simon reveals his fanatical love for Cameron’s literary works, and purchases the house despite its apparent ‘quirks’. With the impending Christmas comes an impending baby, an impending visit from Flic’s mother-in-law (aka The Beast of Basingstoke, played with a suitably brash and formidable presence by Diane Grimshaw), and, to add to the comedic surrealism, Susie summons her Guardian Angel, played with brusque scattiness by Jo Forster.
The off-hand exchanges between the couples, and their various visitors, peppered with brilliant witticisms courtesy of the script, keep the pace and our attention gripped; no small feat, achieved by the complete competence and often mercurial directing from Debra West, a returning favourite. One of the funniest, most ingenious scenes, for example, has both Jack and Susie “assisting” Simon with his latest book. The two ghosts (on stage for the majority of the play) inhibit the same room as the other characters, and the illusion that the latter can never physically see the former is a strong breeding ground, not only for the comedy potential, but also for a potential nightmare regarding any blocking and physical business. West and the cast avoid any clashes through a neat ‘choreograph’ of stagecraft. Equally impressive is West’s control on exactly how ‘nightmarish’, or rather, burlesqued, the broader characters need to be: both Grimshaw’s overbearing mother-in-law troupe and Forster’s Madame Arcati-inspired Angel are just about credible, placed nicely in this ethereal farce.
It would be naïve of me to ignore that the play, as with all the best farces, does in fact conjure up a handful of genuinely emotive scenes, and comes with a couple of subliminal messages. Life is pretty much what you make of it, and to delay on any plans would be remiss.
If there is a grumble, it’s that the show would be better suited to a November/December slot, but this afterthought aside, this is a tight, energetic production delivering more than its fair share of laughs.
Spirit Level is playing at the Caxton Theatre until Saturday 14th June, at 7.30pm. Click on the link below to purchase tickets.
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