When Pebbles Restaurant and Peninsula Players team up to present an evening of dinner theatre, they draw a capacity crowd. And it's no wonder. The food is beautifully prepared and presented, and the entertainment is high-class and hilarious.Thursday, Oct. 28, was opening night for the latest production, Blithe Spirit, a classic farce by Noel Coward.
The evening began with a superb five-course dinner crafted by master chef Max Pleuss. The appetizers were a flavourful chilled cucumber dill soup with a twist of garlic, followed by crab and shrimp cakes with creamy paprika sauce. Lemon sorbet cleansed the palette in preparation for melt-in-the-mouth beef tenderloin and garlic prawns. The finale was a tart-sweet raspberry glacé. The service was friendly and efficient, and courses followed one another smoothly, obviously the efforts of a professional team. Peninsula Players presented the after-dinner entertainment, a wryly-funny comedy the cast seemed to enjoy as much as the audience. Charles Condomine (played by John Keates) is an author doing research for his latest book. He and his wife Ruth (Deirdre Palmer) host a dinner party and séance to gather information from the local medium, Madame Acarti (Jeanette Bernard). Charles gathers more than he bargained for when his late wife Elvira (played by Llewellyn Keates) is conjured up and joins the party. And just what does one do with the ghost of a dead wife when one's living wife is also very present and none too pleased?This is the premise for this tale of "astral bigamy" and manners gone awry. Charles is the only one who can see and hear Elvira, which makes for some of the best lines in the play as he talks to his dead wife over the head of the skeptical and petulant Ruth. In the morning, he insists: "I was not drunk! It might seem like nonsense in the cold clinical light of day It was not nonsense. I had a visitation." The shenanigans of the mischievous visitation disrupt the household until the quirky conclusion.
The intimate setting arranged by hosts Bob and Kathy Crosbie and the staff of Pebbles created a fine ambiance for the performers, extending the play's sitting room into the restaurant/theatre.
There are two more performances: tonight, Nov. 5, and Saturday, Nov. 6. Doors open at 6 p.m.; dinner is served promptly at 6:30. The play starts at 8. Call Pebbles Restaurant at 604-885-5811 to make reservations for a thoroughly enjoyable evening.
