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My blog has quite a lot of posts about Samuel West (Julius Caesar, On Chesil Beach and Darkest Hour) and Charles Edwards (My Fair Lady Australian tour and Henry IX).

Saturday 19 April 2014

Charles Edwards - Blithe Spirit press round up


Reviews

Charles' comic timing and "excellent" performance have been mentioned in several reviews.

Theatre and me
"Edwards is the perfect English gentleman – even in the throes of madness and it is hilarious to watch him become unravelled by his visions of Elvira."

4 Your Excitement
"I found his performance throughout highly enjoyable and his comic timing during the scenes with the ghostly Elvira was perfect."

Vickster51corner/@vickster51
"For me, the night however belongs to Charles Edwards as Condomine. His comic timing is superb and I can’t think of anyone more suited for the role. He also has fantastic chemistry with both Janie Dee and Jemima Rooper, which is incredibly enjoyable to watch."

The greatest of all art forms
"The always reliable Charles Edwards holds the piece together brilliantly as Condomine, with his cut-glass accent and perfectly coiffed hair he seems born to perform Coward."

Kieran J Knowles
"The performances by the rather small company are outstanding. Charles Edwards is excellent asthe writer looking investigating the world of the unseen, Charles Condomine."

A night at the theatre
"The real star for me though is Charles Edwards as (funnily enough) Charles. It is priceless seeing him cope with his both wives."

Cultural Capital
"Charles Edwards as ‘astral bigamist’ Charles Condomine is hilarious... Edwards’s comic timing is fantastic especially in the conversations with [wives] Elvira and Ruth..."

TNT Magazine
"...suave Charles Edwards excels as novelist Charles Condomine..."

Camden Review
"Charles Edwards charms as the unwitting bigamist Charles Condomine..."

Baz Bamigboye
"Ms Lansbury is tops, along with her co-stars Charles Edwards, Janie Dee, Jemima Rooper, Serena Evans, Simon Jones and Patsy Ferran. Their comic timing is delicious."

The Independent
"Charles Edwards beautifully captures the supercilious suavity of the novelist who is knocked off balance by the idea that it's his “subconscious” which has summoned Elvira."

Gareth Carr
"Edwards is a wonderfully bemused and down trodden Charles. A mix of English gent and part buffoon he warms the audience to his confusion and delirium with great ease."

Partially Obstructed View/@nick730
"There's certainly a cast I'd been looking forward to, and they lived up to this promise: Edwards is well-suited to the snappy exchanges of dialogue in Coward - and alternates amusingly between exasperation at finding himself with two wives - one of whom only he can see - and a rebellious nature that does nothing to make things easier for himself."

The Arts Desk
"Edwards is charming, with consummate timing. He'd have been a matinee idol if he'd lived in Coward's era."

theatreCat/Libby Purves
"... a last word about Charles Edwards:  always subtler, funnier, more human than you expect,  whether as Andrew Aguecheek, Edward VII [? possibly Edward VIII in Bertie and Elizabeth or Geroge VI in The King's Speech] or a Tory Chief Whip [Bernard Weatherill in This House].  His Condomine is all he should be: smooth but easily put-upon, posturing, petulant, worriedly uncertain of his own feelings (terrified he might really have called up Elvira out of his ‘subconscious’),  easily panicked. A man adrift, a worm fit for the turning."

The Stage
"Charles Edwards is simultaneously hilarious and desperate as he tries to keep his two wives happy."

Huffington Post
"Charles Edwards is excellent as the man stuck between his feuding wives - one dead, one alive. Those who caught him in Strange Interlude or This House, both at the National, or in the Pravda excerpt at the NT50 Anniversary Gala will remember his brilliant comic timing and all of that is on show here again."

Evening Standard
"The perennially underrated Edwards manages to make Condomine both suave and petulant, an urbane master of the cocktail cabinet who’s nevertheless forever on the brink of panic."

Londonist
"Charles Edwards is excellent as the complaining and henpecked, yet ultimately rather dopey husband."

The Jewish Chronicle
"Lansbury is great. But the success of this production is really down to some extremely savvy casting beneath the top billing. Charles Edwards is an actor with real depth and breadth but there are few sights more pleasurable than his quintessential Englishman. His Condomine is as sophisticated and dry as one of his favourite martinis."

Financial Times
"...the excellent Charles Edwards offers a brilliantly detailed comic turn as Charles [Condomine]"

The Spectator
"Edwards brings to his role all the verve with dialogue he showed in his career-making role as Benedict at the Globe’s 2011 Much Ado About Nothing. Then he played opposite Eve Best, and here he shows again that his stage presence doesn’t fade even beside the most powerful of actresses."

Telegraph
"Charles Edwards drips charm and style as Charles Condomine... [Edwards] communicates very well the sadness that is at the heart of his character. I [Tim Walker] have never seen the role played more effectively."

Guardian
"Charles Edwards as the suave but set-upon Charles [Condomine]... is effortlessly accomplished: urbane rather than arch, suggesting a lifetime at ease with his own good opinion of himself."

Purplebone
"Edwards gives Condomine a humanity that could have been missed among the comedy."

Loitering in the Theatre
"Edwards is superb, of course, as the man caught between the ghost of his first wife Elvira and the real person of his second, Ruth."

Not quite a yummy mummy/@KateSLP
"Charles Edwards, one of this country's finest and yet underrated actors, is deliciously smug and suave as Charles Condomine."

Interview
broadway.com

Pictures
Press night (18 March) Tatler|broadwayworld.com|wooller.com|Getty - curtain call|Getty-after party

Video
Press night (18 March) theatrepeople.com

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