Success is getting what you want; happiness is liking what you get

Saturday 10 July 2010

Blithe Spirit

What could be worse that having the spirit of your dead wife visiting you and you being the only one who could see her? Having the spirits of two deceased wives come calling! We had a little bit of culture last night when we attended the local Heretaunga Players production of the Noel Coward classic, Blithe Spirit. I just love Noel Coward plays, they are so “wordy”, with clever repartee and flowing dialogue. Robin wasn’t too keen to come along. “I’ve already seen it”, he complained. Sure we did, but that was years ago, and at a different theatre. I’d already purchased the tickets, and after all, it is a classic play.

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The play is set in 1942, in Kent, in the upper class home of the Condomines, who invite the local doctor and his wife to dinner, along with Madame Arcati, the local medium. A séance takes place and things go from bad to worse when the spirit of Elvira, Charles first wife, is called back from the other side.

Noel Coward wrote the play in 1942 in just six days, when he saw the terrible effects of the blitz on the Londoners. Everywhere he went he encountered doom and gloom, not surprising under the circumstances. He hoped that his play would cheer people up and it certainly did. Even Robin, tired at the end of a busy work week found it amusing, I definitely caught him chortling away several times. I just knew he would enjoy it! I certainly did.

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