Blithe Spirit

Synopsis

Charles Condomine, a successful author, is happily married to Ruth. To collect material for his latest book he invites Madam Acarti, the medium, to conduct a seance at his home unwittingly releasing the ghost of his first wife Elvira who it would appear wants him back! One of Coward's great comedies.

Our Review:

23 November 2004

Sometimes, I have to respectfully disagree. Not just with my colleague Pete Wood, who reviewed this production at its out-of-town debut in Bath this summer, but also with Richard Eyre, who is quoted as calling the play “a clunking one-joke farce about the afterlife".

Myself, I think that Blithe Spirit – written by Noel Coward in just five days and originally put on stage a mere six weeks later in 1941 - is as blissfully outrageous a popular comedy as it is surprisingly courageous.

Here, in the middle of the Second World War, Coward dared to write a riotously and preposterously comical take on death. His familiar demonstrations of the poisonous state of marital relations are given the delicious spin of a séance that summons up the spirit of the husband’s late wife, who proceeds to wreak havoc on the already testy state of his second marriage.

As shimmeringly played by Amanda Drew, the “ghost” wife is as throaty and quixotic as a young Vanessa Redgrave...

Read more of the review

Latest User Review

203.14.46.142) - 12 May 2005:

Enjoyable. Didnt realise Penelope Keith played the role of Madame Arcati, would love to have seen her in the role (I live in Oz).. probably 3.5 stars...

Read more and add your own review