Cast

Synopsis

Charles Condomine, whose first wife Elvira has been dead for 7 years, has been reasonably happy with his second wife Ruth. After he invites Madame Arcati, a local medium, to conduct a séance at their home, Elvira returns from the dead. Determined to get Charles to herself forever, she arranges several ‘accidents’ ….with unexpected consequences.

Directors Notes

Who would think that directing a play by Noel Coward, the Master, could be so difficult? I certainly didn’t; I wasn’t prepared for the complexities of a comparatively simple plot with well-drawn characters. I’m not going to say that directing it hasn’t been fun – a well-chosen and talented cast have seen to the fun factor. To have lan Robinson in your corner as stage manager is to be in very heaven. So what is the problem? To start it’s quite a long play set in three acts in seven different scenes. Then there’s quite a lot of shifting of props and changes of costumes. But I’ve faced all these sort of problems many times so why is it so difficult? I think it may be to do with the well known fact that Coward wrote his plays in next to no time and maybe (is this heresy?) that he didn’t spend enough time polishing his dialogue. I’ve tried cutting the play in an effort to tidy it up a bit, but cutting is never easy and in this case has proved to be next to impossible. So I have to ask the question, “‘Am I going to be satisfied with the result?”; my reply has to be, “Yes, indeed” but I wish for the life of me that I could tell you why. Theatre ever was a magical place that has kept me in its thrall ever since I was a child. From the outset in my recent production of The Crucible I knew where I was going and I knew where to lead the cast to a satisfying destination. Arthur Miller saw to that. Coward is another cup of tea, and I’m finding it infinitely more difficult to realise Blithe Spirit on stage than Arthur Miller’s masterpiece had been. Blithe Spirit is coming together in rehearsal and I am confident it will be another magical moment for me, for the cast and I hope for you. If it really works, its magic – it’s for that that we’re all here.

I’ve waved my magic wand; let magic begin.