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PRODUCTION: Blithe Spirit (Comedy Farce) PRODUCTION DATE: 1961 DIRECTED / PRODUCED BY: Jane Towell STAGED: The Park Centre, Burgess Hill. SYNOPSIS: To collect material for a new book, author Charles Condomine invites local medium Madame Arcarti to conduct a seance at his home. This causes Charles's first wife (Elvira) to return from death, but she is only visible and audible to Charles and makes his life impossible. Plotting to get Charles to join her in the spirit world, Elvira tampers with the car but ironically, it's Ruth (Charles's 2nd wife) who dies at the wheel, joining Elvira on the 'other side'. Now plagued by two jealous spirits, he enlists Madame Arcarti's help to exorcize them, which she never quite manages....... PLAYWRIGHT: Noel Coward was a prolific playwright and performer from a very early age. Born in December 1899, he wrote many plays, popular songs and performed both on stage and in film. 'Blithe Spirit' which he wrote in 1941, originally broke all box-office records for a West End comedy and was subsequently made into a film directed by David Lean. Coward moved to live in the Caribbean in the 1950's where he continued to write. He was knighted in 1970 and died in Jamaica in March 1973.
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