Blithe Spirit 2011 - Articles Page 85

Blithe Spirit opened in 1941 when it played for over 2,000 performances and hugely raised wartime spirits. It has been one of the world's favourite comedies ever since. Its razor-sharp wit and wonderful characters have continued to raise spirits both in the audience and on stage. Novelist Charles Condomine and his second wife Ruth are literally haunted by a past relationship when an eccentric medium manages to conjure up the ghost of Charles's neurotic first wife, Elvira, at a seance.



They have assumed the preposterous Madame Arcati is a fraud who will simply entertain their dinner guests with a little chicanery and supply Charles with material for his forthcoming novel. But when Elvira appears, visible only to Charles, and determined to sabotage his current marriage, life - and the afterlife - begin to get complicated.