Blithe Spirit: The Next 80 Years…
A look at current productions and the future of Blithe Spirit…
For this part, we spoke to Chris Hawley, Artistic Director of Black Box Theatre Company, currently touring an outdoor production of Blithe Spirit; and Brad Rosenstein, curator of the Noel Coward: Art & Style exhibition. Both productions are currently running across this special anniversary.
We began by asking both why they thought Blithe Spirit was still so popular:
BR: The play's popularity has persisted, and I think it always will, for multiple reasons. It's the best structured of Coward's full-length plays, and although few audiences will be consciously aware of how important those technical considerations are, Coward was meticulous about craft and was well aware that he had built a very sturdy mechanism with this play. It still remains very funny - the complications of Charles and Ruth first confronting Elvira when only one of them can see and hear her is about as classic a comic situation as anyone has ever devised. And Coward's sharp observation that everything from squabbling to sexual attraction to jealousy may well transcend mortality strikes us as both funny and true.
Perhaps even more to the point for us today: although the play's take on marriage may seem superficially dated, the three leading women in the play wield enormous power - even beyond death! Coward melds successful and still contemporary elements of Private Lives (enduring illicit passion and childish fury) and Design for Living (a daring love triangle) and gives them an extra twist that raises the stakes tremendously. The play has a gravity underneath all of its farcical turns, some real pain and insecurity in all of the central characters that drives them comically to keep making the same mistakes over and over again, even beyond the grave.
CH: Blithe Spirit has an enduring appeal because it's such a great story. Everyone likes a ghost story and everyone likes a comedy. The two together in the hands of The Master is sheer joy. And although now a 'period' piece, it still holds up well and is undoubtedly a firm favourite with audiences. And it's funny! As we have said in our marketing, "Charles has two wives, one most certainly living and the other most certainly dead, 'living' under the same roof? What could possibly go wrong?" . Also Coward writes brilliant parts for women - funny, strong, eccentric, complex. I know the actors absolutely love the women they're playing. They are definitely the driving force behind the story.
CHRIS HAWLEY ON BLACK BOX THEATRE’S TOUR OF BLITHE SPIRIT
Blithe Spirit was originally produced in the face of adversity during the blitz. Do you think your production also provides audiences with some escapism at a difficult time?
I think theatre always has an element of escapism for an audience, but certainly, as we hopefully come to the end of lockdown, there is a real appetite for audiences to get together and experience live entertainment. Theatre is a shared experience and I think we've all be missing more than we'd have imagined and the opportunity to come and watch such a fabulous play in some beautiful outdoor settings is a welcome treat for many.
Has performing the play outside presented any challenges?
Performing outside is a very different prospect to an indoor space. Firstly there are the elements to contend with ... weather mainly - wind, rain, heat etc etc. Then there is often ambient noise. From an actor's point of view it can be a challenge, especially to be heard. From a technical point of view we had to slow the delivery down, which in fact added to the style of the piece, so the actors could really get their mouths around the words and do Coward's script and wit justice in the great outdoors. It made sense to me that, as we are outside, that we should set the play in the Condomine's garden rather than a drawing room which works wonderfully and allows for a few extra comic moments. We've had great fun with Edith, the maid, and have a fabulous young actress who is brilliant at physical comedy. Also, we get Elvira to wander on and off through the audience. Due to the limitations of what we can do technically outside (basic lighting and sound) we've had to be quite inventive to conjure up the atmosphere of the piece, especially when it comes to the ghost(s)!
BRAD ROSENSTEIN ON NOEL COWARD: ART & STYLE, GUILDHALL ART GALLERY
It's actually surprised me to see how extensively Blithe Spirit came to feature in the exhibition, as it's not the first Coward play that would come to mind for its visual impact. But it happened very organically, and became an important theme throughout the show. The Condomines' very English home is itself a character in any production, and in many of the early incarnations designed by Gladys Calthrop it bears a more than passing resemblance to Goldenhurst, Coward's home in Kent (which had its own resident ghost).
The play first appears in the exhibition in reference to couturier Edward Molyneux, who dressed many of Coward's leading ladies throughout his career, and who for the play's premiere 1941 production took on the challenge of creating a suitable dress for Elvira. Working under strict wartime rationing rules regarding materials, he nevertheless produced a gorgeous ghostly gown, invoking both his own stylish simplicity and a timeless Grecian austerity that looks exactly what Elvira would be wearing for eternity. It's a masterpiece of draping and cut. Elvira was clearly a very stylish woman in life, and it is vital to the play that she retains a powerful attraction for Charles.
Molyneux repeated the feat for Judy Campbell in Coward's 1943 touring production, represented in the exhibition by an iconic production photo that cleverly uses double exposure to evoke Elvira's ghostly state. The photo is by Cecil Beaton, and reflected the beginning of his slow rapprochement with Coward, which would eventually lead to his designing two Coward productions, Quadrille and Look After Lulu!. The American couturier Mainbocher designed an equally glamourous grey hooded gown for Elvira in the first Broadway production of Blithe Spirit. It's pictured both in its original context onstage and in a stunning colour photo by Horst for Vogue, another powerful indication of how influential Coward's work was on the style of his time.
Blithe Spirit reppears vividly in the final section of the exhibition, which looks at Coward's ongoing influence on fashion and style today. A clip from the 1945 film is on view in the media gallery, right next to two of Charlotte Walter's stunning costumes from the 2020 film version, including a slinky blue gown for Elvira and the Arcati ensemble worn by Judi Dench. Bringing the theme full circle in the exhibition's finale are two knockout dresses by designer Anna Sui for her Autumn/Winter 2017 collection, which were strongly inspired by the ghostly effects and Technicolor sheen of the 1945 film.
Looking to the future…
The next Blithe Spirit milestone will be the return of the West End production starring Jennifer Saunders. But beyond that? Who knows? Who would you like to see play Madame Arcati? Which actors of today are the Arcatis of tomorrow? Let us know in the comments or on social media.
And what about when Blithe Spirit comes out of copyright in 2043? What will directors’ imaginations do with the play? Will there be a stream of Madame Arcatis in drag, as sometimes happens with Wilde’s Lady Bracknell? Will there be a new musical adaptation? A hip hop dance retelling? And what about in another 80 years’ time? How will technology change theatre? Will we be using holograms to bring past Elviras back from the dead for ‘real’? Or streamed straight into our brains!? I’ll be dead in 80 years, but hopefully Madame Arcati will bring me back because I’d love to see it what happens!
The last word should go to Coward himself:
“I must say, with what will seem to be a refreshing gust of modesty, that in my opinion I have never achieved the perfect play that I have always longed, and will always long, to write – but I shall ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift that enabled me to write “Blithe Spirit” in five days during one of the darkest years of the war. It was not meticulously constructed in advance and only one day elapsed between its original conception and the moment I sat down to write it. It fell into my mind and onto the manuscript. Six weeks later it was produced and ran for four and a half years, and I am still wondering whether or not it was ‘Important’.
Only Time will tell.”
Thank you for joining us for our celebration of 80 years of Blithe Spirit. We hope you enjoyed reading these posts. If you did, let us know in the comments. Follow us on social media for updates from the Noel Coward Estate and keep checking this blog for more stories and secrets from the Archive.
