Blithe Spirit is a comic play by Noël Coward, described by the author as "an improbable farce in three acts".Mander and Mitchenson, p. 366 The play concerns the socialite and novelist Charles Condomine, who invites the eccentric medium and clairvoyant Madame Arcati to his house to conduct a séance, hoping to gather material for his next book. The scheme backfires when he is haunted by the ghost of his wilful and temperamental first wife, Elvira, after the séance. Elvira makes continual attempts to disrupt Charles's marriage to his second wife, Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost.
The play was first seen in the West End in 1941 and ran for 1,997 performances, a new record for a non-musical play in London. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1945; a second film version followed in 2020. Coward directed a musical adaptation, High Spirits, seen on Broadway and in the West End in 1964. Radio and television presentations of the play have been broadcast in Britain and the US from 1944 onwards. It continues to be revived in the West End, on Broadway and elsewhere.
Background The title of the play is taken from Shelley's poem "To a Skylark", ("Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! / Bird thou never wert").Nightingale, Benedict. "Coward's high-flyer lays an egg", The Times, 19 June 1997, p. 37 For some time before 1941 Coward had been thinking of a comedy about ghosts. His first thoughts centred on an old house in Paris, haunted by spectres from different centuries, with the comedy arising from their conflicting attitudes, but he could not get the plot to work in his mind.Payn, p. 89 He knew that in wartime Britain, with death a constant presence, there would be some objection to a comedy about ghosts,Hoare, p. 321 but his firm view was that as the story would be thoroughly heartless, "you can't sympathise with any of them. If there was a heart it would be a sad story."
After his London office and flat had been destroyed in the Blitz, Coward took a short holiday with the actress Joyce Carey at Portmeirion on the coast of Snowdonia in Wales. She was writing a play about Keats, and he was still thinking about his ghostly light comedy. He later recounted:
Synopsis Charles Condomine is a successful novelist. At the start of the play, while dressing for dinner, he and his second wife, Ruth, discuss his first wife, Elvira, who died young, seven years earlier. He comments, "I remember her physical attractiveness, which was tremendous, and her spiritual integrity, which was nil".Coward (1941), p. 4 Among the Condomines' dinner guests is an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, whom Charles has invited in the hope of learning about the occult for a story he is writing. He has arranged for her to conduct a séance after dinner. During the séance she plays a recording of Irving Berlin's song "Always" on the gramophone, inadvertently attracting the ghost of Elvira.Coward (1941), pp. 17 and 20
The medium leaves, unaware of what she has done. Only Charles can see or hear Elvira, and Ruth does not believe that Elvira exists, until a floating vase is handed to her out of thin air. The ghostly Elvira makes continued, and increasingly desperate, efforts to disrupt Charles's current marriage. Charles accuses her of being "feckless and irresponsible and morally unstable".Coward (1941), p. 69 She finally sabotages his car in the hope of killing him so that he will join her in the spirit world, but it is Ruth rather than Charles who drives off and is killed.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 368−369
Ruth's ghost immediately comes back for revenge on Elvira, and though Charles cannot at first see Ruth, he can see that Elvira is being chased and tormented, and his house is in uproar. He calls Madame Arcati back to exorcise both the spirits, but instead of banishing them she unintentionally materialises Ruth. With both his dead wives now fully visible, and neither of them in the best of tempers, Charles, together with Madame Arcati, goes through séance after séance and spell after spell to try to exorcise them. It is not until Madame Arcati works out that the housemaid, Edith, is psychic and had unwittingly been the conduit through which Elvira was summoned that she succeeds in dematerialising both ghosts.Coward (1941), p. 83 Charles is left seemingly in peace, but Madame Arcati, hinting that the ghosts may still be around unseen, warns him that he should go far away as soon as possible. Coward repeats one of his signature theatrical devices at the end of the play, where the central character tiptoes out as the curtain falls – a device that he also used in Present Laughter, Private Lives and Hay Fever.Billington, pp. iv–v; and Lahr, p. 71 Charles bids his vanished wives farewell and leaves at once; the unseen ghosts throw things and wreck the room as soon as he has gone.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 371−372
First production Blithe Spirit was first produced at the Manchester Opera House on 16 June 1941, and then premiered in the West End on 2 July. During the long London run − 1,997 performances − it played at three theatres. It opened at the Piccadilly Theatre, transferred to the St James's Theatre on 23 March 1942 and then to the Duchess Theatre on 6 October 1942, closing on 9 March 1946."Blithe Spirit", The Times, 14 March 1946, p. 5 It was directed by Coward; sets and costumes were designed by Gladys Calthrop.Gaye, p. 22 The run set a record for non-musical plays in the West End that was not surpassed until September 1957 by The Mousetrap.
Original cast Charles Condomine – Cecil Parker Ruth – Fay Compton Elvira – Kay Hammond Madame Arcati – Margaret Rutherford Dr Bradman – Martin Lewis Mrs Bradman – Moya Nugent Edith, a maid – Ruth Reeves Source: Mander and Mitchenson.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 367 and 374−375
There were several changes of cast during the run; all but two of the roles were played by different performers at one time or another. Only Martin Lewis and Moya Nugent stayed from the first night to the last. Irene Browne played two different characters during the run. After playing the steely Ruth from 1942 to 1944 she appeared for six months in 1945 as the ebullient Madame Arcati. As well as changes in the regular principals, other actors − including Coward − appeared for short spells of two or more weeks to allow the regulars to take a holiday.
While the play continued its London run several tours were organised. A company under the management of Ronald Squire began a British tour in February 1942. The cast included Squire (Charles), Browne (Ruth), Ursula Jeans (Elvira), and Agnes Lauchlan (Madame Arcati). A company headed by Coward presented the piece along with Present Laughter and This Happy Breed under the collective title of Play Parade, in a 25-week tour from September 1942. Coward played Charles; Joyce Carey, Ruth; Judy Campbell, Elvira; and Beryl Measor, Madame Arcati. Another tour went out in 1943, headed by John Wentworth as Charles and Mona Washbourne as Madame Arcati.Mander and Mitchenson, pp. 374−375
From February 1944 an ENSA company toured the Middle East and continental Europe with Blithe Spirit. Emlyn Williams played Charles; Jessie Evans and Elliott Mason shared the role of Madame Arcati, Adrianne Allen played Ruth; and Lueen MacGrath, Elvira. From October 1945 to February 1946 another ENSA company played Blithe Spirit (and Hamlet) in India and Burma for the armed forces. John Gielgud played Charles; Irene Browne, Madame Arcati; Marian Spencer, Ruth; and Hazel Terry, Elvira.
Later productions Britain In July 1970 the play was revived in the West End at the Globe Theatre, starring Patrick Cargill as Charles, Phyllis Calvert as Ruth, Amanda Reiss as Elvira and Beryl Reid as Madame Arcati; it ran until January 1971."Theatres", The Times, 23 July 1970; and 14 January 1971, p. 10 It was revived by the National Theatre in 1976 in a production directed by Harold Pinter, starring Richard Johnson as Charles, Rowena Cooper as Ruth, Maria Aitken as Elvira and Elizabeth Spriggs as Madame Arcati. Another London revival played in 1986 at the Vaudeville Theatre, starring Simon Cadell as Charles, Jane Asher as Ruth, Joanna Lumley as Elvira and Marcia Warren as Madame Arcati."Blithe Spirit", The Guardian, 1 February 1986, p. 12 A 1997 revival at the Chichester Festival Theatre, directed by Tim Luscombe, featured Steven Pacey (Charles), Belinda Lang (Ruth), Twiggy (Elvira) and Dora Bryan as Madame Arcati.Spencer, Charles. "Comic turns and piquant pleasures", The Daily Telegraph, 19 June 1997, p. 29
The piece was back in the West End at the Savoy Theatre in 2004, in a production directed by Thea Sharrock, starring Aden Gillett as Charles, Joanna Riding as Ruth, Amanda Drew as Elvira and Penelope Keith (succeeded by Stephanie Cole) as Madame Arcati. Matt Wolf wrote in Variety, "Sharrock and her company land every laugh in a play that induces an indecent amount of pleasure while never letting us forget the extent to which Blithe Spirit comes marinated in pain."Wolf, Matt. "Blithe Spirit", Variety, 28 November 20014. Retrieved 3 March 2021
Sharrock directed a revival of her production of the play, which started as a UK tour"Steadman Spirit Confirms West End & Tour Dates", What'sOnStage, 30 June 2010. Retrieved 5 May 2014 and then moved to the Apollo Theatre, London. It ran there from March to June 2011, with a cast including Robert Bathurst as Charles, Hermione Norris as Ruth, Ruthie Henshall as Elvira and Alison Steadman as Madame Arcati.Billington, Michael. "Blithe Spirit: review", The Guardian, 10 March 2011
A West End production, directed by Michael Blakemore, opened at the Gielgud Theatre in March 2014, with Charles Edwards as Charles, Janie Dee as Ruth, Jemima Rooper as Elvira, Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, and Jones as Dr Bradman as in Blakemore's 2009 Broadway production. It ran until June.Billington, Michael. "Blithe Spirit review: The play's the thing in a fine Noël Coward revival", The Guardian, 18 March 2014
A revival at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2019 was followed by a UK tour and a West End run at the Duke of York's Theatre that opened in March 2020. After 12 performances, it was interrupted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The production starred Jennifer Saunders as Madame Arcati and Richard Eyre directed. Geoffrey Streatfeild and Lisa Dillon played Charles and Ruth Condomine, Simon Coates and Lucy Robinson were Dr and Mrs Bradman, Emma Naomi played Elvira and Rose Wardlaw was Edith. Design was by Anthony Ward, lighting by Howard Harrison, sound by John Leonard and illusions by Paul Kieve.Swain, Marianka. "BWW Review: Blithe Spirit, Duke of York's Theatre", BroadwayWorld.com, 11 March 11, 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2021"Jennifer Saunders returns to Blithe Spirit in West End from 16 September", Bestoftheatre.co.uk, 29 May 2021. Retrieved 20 October 2021
The Eyre production returned to the West End for a limited run from September to November 2021 at the Harold Pinter Theatre with the same cast and crew, except that Madeleine Mantock played Elvira.Purves, Libby. "Review: Blithe Spirit, Harold Pinter Theatre London", BritishTheatre.com, 23 September 2021
London casts, 1970 to 2019