 | The Semi-Circle |
Spring Production 2017 - "Blithe Spirit" by Noël Coward
9, 10, 16, 17, 23 ,24 June 2017 Theater Rampe, Borromäum, Byfangweg 6, Basel Director: Scott Holland
Cast: David Cox: Charles Condomine,
Melissa Magarici: Elvira Condomine,
Cathy Barker: Ruth Condomine,
Michael Bray: Dr. George Bradman
Catherine Matter: Mrs Violet Bradman
Diana Zuger: Madame Arcati,
Fiona Müller: Edith, the Maid Producer: Richard Brown You can view the programme here Synopsis Charles Condomine, a successful novelist, wishes to learn about the occult for a novel he is writing, and he arranges for an eccentric medium, Madame Arcati, to hold a séance at his home with his second wife, Ruth, and friends the Bradmans. At the séance, she inadvertently summons Charles' first wife, Elvira, who has been dead for seven years. Only Charles can see or hear Elvira. Ruth does not believe that she exists until a floating vase is handed to her out of thin air. Elvira is louche and moody, in contrast to the more strait-laced Ruth. The ghostly Elvira makes continued, and increasingly desperate, efforts to disrupt Charles' current marriage. She finally sabotages his car in the hope of killing him so that he will join her in the spirit world with an unexpected twist. Madame Arcati is brought back to the house to exorcize the ghost of Elvira when the household learns of another psychic presence in the house which may have been responsible for bringing back Elvira. |
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- - - - - About the Author and the play In May 1941, returning to England after some time, Noel Coward was shocked by the grim reality of London under the Blitz and that the war had brought death into almost every British home. With this in mind, and after his own apartment had been seriously damaged during an air raid, Coward decided to start work on a new script which he hoped would lift the spirits of theatre goers and provide him with a new hit. He traveled with a female friend to Wales for a holiday and after just 7 days he wrote the comedic play, Blithe Spirit. Blithe Spirit is perhaps Coward’s best constructed and most mature work and one of his funniest. A fast-moving English comedy set in the late 1930s, it is a love triangle between a husband and his two wives: one who is alive and one who is very much dead.
This classic dark comedy has been revived and produced many times over the years. It endures because of its witty dialogue and the bizarre and hilarious circumstances in which Coward’s characters find themselves. The story of Blithe Spirit was also made into a Broadway musical called High Spirits in 1964. In a review in the New York Times for a production in 2002, it was written, “Usually, the best productions of ”Blithe Spirit” . . . happen in regional theatres, starlessly, under knowing directors . . . “
"Blithe Spirit" was first produced by the Semi-Circle in 1984. |
