by Noël Coward
Directed by Kristin Hughes

Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit comes to Concord Players’ stage

"Very gay, superficial comedy about a ghost. Feel it may be good."
    That’s how Noel Coward described the script of Blithe Spirit in a letter to a friend. It was good. Very good.

Coward wrote Blithe Spirit in six days during the German blitz of London in 1941 while feisty Londoners were sleeping in tunnels, rationing food and plodding through the rubble of burned-out buildings. Unfazed, Coward retired to Wales to write an “improbable farce” about an upper class household haunted by ghosts. It was exactly what war-weary Londoners needed. They loved it. Audiences on Broadway loved it too, where it opened just four months after its London debut.

Coward’s singular gift for language ensured that Blithe Spirit would enjoy countless revivals on two continents. The story hit the big screen in 1945 starring Rex Harrison. Now this “psychic ménage-a-trois” is coming to the Concord Players’ stage. Opening on February 10th and directed by Kristin Hughes, Blithe Spirit promises to be as funny, fresh and farcical as it was 75 years ago.

As the play opens, novelist Charles Condomine is preparing to host a séance in preparation for his new book, Unseen. He invites eccentric psychic Madame Arcati to preside, expecting nothing more than a silly escapade. When his long-dead first wife Elvira makes a spectral appearance, Charles finds himself in a delicate position with his current and very much alive wife, Ruth.

In this day of digital sophistication, it’s a plot that could engender a big yawn. But Coward’s genius endures, especially under Kristin Hughes’ gifted direction and set designer Allen Bantley’s mesmerizing special effects.
Take your cue from Noel Coward who thumbed his nose at the Luftwaffe. Come to Blithe Spirit for an evening of hearty laughter and tell Old Man Winter to take a hike!

Tickets    

 50 years ago!