Actors NET presents bewitching comedy in time for Halloween

"Bell, Book and Candle"

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays through Nov. 15

Where: Morrisville Heritage Center, 635 N. Delmorr Ave. (Route 32 by the Calhoun Street Bridge), Morrisville, Pa.

Admission: $20, $17 for seniors over 62, $15 for WHYY cardholders, $10 for children under 13. (215) 295-3694 or actorsnet@aol.com.

A family of witches takes up residence at the Morrisville Heritage Center starting tonight, but their stay extends beyond Halloween weekend. They are half the cast of John Van Druten's delightful romantic comedy "Bell, Book and Candle," and they'll be in residence through Nov. 15.

Director Virginia Barrie was on Actors NET's play reading committee, which suggested this 1950 comedy by the author of "I Am a Camera," which became the musical "Cabaret." She was delighted when Joe and Cheryl Doyle invited her to direct it, and she did it on condition that Cheryl Doyle play Queenie Holroyd.

Cheryl, in turn, promised to provide her cat, Max, for the pivotal role of Pyewacket, the "familiar" of a vivacious sorceress named Gillian Holroyd. That Greenwich Village witch uses her magic to make her neighbor, a serious publisher named Shep Henderson, fall in love with her.

It's not all that Halloween-ish, but it's the same kind of skirting the supernatural that became familiar with the decade-later TV series "Bewitched," and Gillian has some things in common with TV's witch Samantha.

Director Barrie doesn't find the romance or comedy dated in spite of a few references more recognizable a half century ago. Her only production problem was finding the kind of telephone called for by the script.

"It's probably going to look strange to younger audience members, but it has a lovely ring, not at all that intrusive, jarring sound that some modern phones have," Barrie says. "The story's also rather sexy for its time because Gillian is an earthy and passionate creature whose desires are enhanced by supernatural powers, which were fun to stage."

Barrie has been both onstage and in the director's chair at Actors' NET over the past few years.

Cast as the romantic leads, roles played on stage by Lili Palmer and Rex Harrison and on film by Kim Novak and James Stewart, are Allison DeKorte and John Bergeron, who predict that the romance, breakup and reconciliation of their characters will probably end up in a lasting alliance.

"Shep, who's a rather steady and methodical man with perhaps too much order in his life, is really taken aback by Gillian's unfair tactics," Bergeron says, "but I think they'll have to begin again minus the spells and magic since each recognizes something special in the other. They'll develop a relationship, but I think there will have to be a period of adjustment."

DeKorte says Gillian may be the one making the bigger adjustment.

"According to the witch lore presented here," DeKorte says, "witches can't fall in love, and if they do, they lose their magic powers. For Gillian, those powers are such marvelous conveniences that being without them will force her to learn to lead life in new ways.

"Because of what she says about her brother Nicky, I have the feeling that Gillian may not have aged while a witch, and if she loses that special power too, she'll have the added annoyance of aging. Oh, dear, wrinkles!"