Review: 'Bell, Book, and Candle' blends witchcraft, touching comedy

Sure, on the surface John Van Druten's "Bell, Book, and Candle" seems like a funny little play about the secret lives of witches.

But on closer inspection, it's really a tale about being a regular human.

Starting tonight, the River City Players community theater is bringing Van Druten's play and its witchy characters to life at Port Cape Girardeau.

Students of the theater might know "Bell, Book, and Candle," written in 1958, for its movie version starring James Stewart and Kim Novak. Or they might know the play as the inspiration for the TV show "Bewitched."

However, this play is no "Bewitched."

For starters, in "Bell, Book, and Candle," witches lose their powers when they fall in love. Wouldn't have worked very well for the TV show, would it?

The play follows a few months in the life of a powerful-yet-covert witch, Gillian Holroyd (played by a rather authentic Gelanie Lockhart), and centers on her love affair with the owner of the New York publishing house, Shepherd Henderson (Mike Craig, who does the clueless, confused, love-struck part well).

Gillian meets Shepherd and covets him after learning he's engaged to an old college enemy, so she casts a spell on him to make him love her without question.

But their relationship is complicated by an entertaining cast of characters, all of whom add plenty of comedy to this lighthearted play -- Gillian's aunt Queenie Holroyd (Elaine Carlson), Gillian's mischievous sister Nicky (Meredith Elfrink) and the bumbling author of books on magic Sydney Redlitch (Phil Shaw). These cast members may play supporting roles, but they're all funny, making their characters the play's laugh-inducers.

A live cat, an 11-year-old orange tabby named Angel, plays Gillian's familiar, Pyewacket.

For its first half, the play is really a look at these witches, who are really no different from anyone else (no matter how much they think they are), they just know magic. But when action starts again after intermission, we're confronted with a story arc about embracing your heart and humanity as we see Gillian fall from grace and become more human than she ever hoped to be.

"Bell, Book, and Candle" ends up not just a comedy, but a touching story.

msanders@semissourian.com

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