FROM THE ARCHIVES

Blithe Spirit at The Company of Players (Hertford) 56
Season: 2012-2013
14th – 22nd September 2012 at 8pm Blithe Spirit
By Noel Coward
Directed by 
Paul Morton

Charles Condomine is a successful novelist. Ruth is his charming, strong-willed wife. In order to conduct research for Charles’ latest book, they invite a medium to their home to perform a seance, expecting that the eccentric psychic, Madame Arcati, will be a humorous shyster. Well, she is humorous – in fact, her boisterous character practically steals the show! However, her ability to connect with the dead is genuine.

After prancing about the room reciting nursery rhymes, Madame Arcati summons a ghost from Charles’ past: Elvira – his first wife. Charles can see her, but no one else can. Elvira is flirtatious and catty. She enjoys insulting Charles’ second wife.

At first Ruth thinks her husband has gone insane. Then, after watching a vase float across the room (thanks to Elvira), Ruth accepts the strange truth. What follows is a darkly funny competition between two women, one dead, one living. They battle for the possession of their husband. But as the haunting and the hollering continue, Charles begins to wonder if he wants to be with either woman at all.

Synopsis written by Wade Bradford More from Wikipedia

 

 

 

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