McGuire Proscenium Stage / Nov 25 – Jan 14, 2017 Blithe Spirit by NOËL COWARD directed by DAVID IVERS PLAY GUIDE Inside THE PLAY Synopsis • 3 Characters and Setting • 4 Inspiration for Blithe Spirit • 5 Coward’s Comedy: Still Laughing After 75 Years • 6,7 Responses to Blithe Spirit • 8 The Martini • 9 THE PLAYWRIGHT On Noël Coward • 10 Coward’s Plays • 11 Coward Described By Those Who Knew Him • 12 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION For Further Reading and Understanding • 13 Play guides are made possible by Guthrie Theater Play Guide Copyright 2017 DRAMATURG Carla Steen GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Graves CONTRIBUTORS Carla Steen and Gina Musto Guthrie Theater, 818 South 2nd Street, Minneapolis, MN 55415 All rights reserved. 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This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation new work from diverse cultures, the Guthrie illuminates the common humanity connecting by the Minnesota State Legislature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from Minnesota to the peoples of the world. the National Endowment for the Arts. 2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Synopsis As preparation for a new novel, He quickly brings the evening to an becomes too-tight quarters for the writer Charles Condomine and his end and ushers his guests out the carefree Elvira, controlling Ruth, wife Ruth have invited their friends door, only to discover that his first and Charles, caught between the the Bradmans over to participate wife, Elvira, who died seven years two. A series of accidents raises in a séance conducted by Madame ago, has materialized in his living Ruth’s suspicions about Elvira’s Arcati, a new arrival to their village. room. But as she can only be seen intentions toward Charles, and Bracing themselves with a healthy by Charles, her presence causes indeed Elvira takes a decisive dose of skepticism, they chat a great deal of chaos between action that changes everything. with the eccentric Madame Arcati Charles and Ruth. After Charles is Madame Arcati is called in once before dinner, then get down to finally able to convince Ruth that again to see if she can put all to business later that evening. When Elvira has indeed returned from the rights. Madame Arcati makes contact with dead, Ruth seeks Madame Arcati’s her spiritual control Daphne, they help in getting rid of the first Mrs. learn that someone from the Other Condomine. But, alas, Madame Side would like to communicate Arcati doesn’t know how that Amy Warner, Heidi Armbruster, Sally Wingert, Quinn Mattfeld and Bob Davis. with Charles, and soon Charles can be achieved. The Condomine Photo by Dan Norman. hears a voice that no one else does. house is thrown into an uproar and GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY Characters and Setting SETTING The Condomines’ house in Kent, England, over the course of a few days. Act I Scene 1: Charles Condomine, Mrs. Bradman, 8:00 on a summer evening an author friend of the Condomines Scene 2: Later that night after dinner 15-minute intermission Act II Scene 1: 9:30 the next morning Scene 2: The following afternoon Ruth Condomine, Madame Arcati, his wife a medium Scene 3: An evening several days later Pause Act III Scene 1: An evening a few more days on Scene 2: Early the following morning Edith, Elvira, their maid Charles’ first wife Dr. Bradman, friend of the Condomines 4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Inspiration for Blithe Spirit by Carla Steen Production Dramaturg Shortly before Noël Coward wrote to seven each afternoon. On Friday record that would not be broken Blithe Spirit, during World War II, evening, May the 9th, the play was for years on any London stage. London suffered heavy bombing finished and, disdaining archness by the German air force, leaving and false modesty, I will admit that “I must say,” he wrote in 1964,” with parts of the city in rubble and I knew it was witty, I knew it was what will seem to be a refreshing dust, including Coward’s own well constructed and I also knew gust of modesty, that in my opinion apartment. Responding to this, that it would be a success.” I have never achieved the perfect Coward retreated with a friend to play that I have always longed, Port Meirion in Wales to write. He Given the bleak times in London, and will always long, to write – decided that he would write a play some critics grumbled that its but I shall ever be grateful for the to provide a merry diversion for his subject was inappropriately morbid almost psychic gift that enabled compatriots in these gloomy days. for a country at war. Coward me to write “Blithe Spirit” in [six] He took an idea about ghosts he dismissed the accusations that his days during one of the darkest had been batting about and quickly play was too gloomy: “There’s no years of the war.” Coward felt that wrote Blithe Spirit, barely changing question of that, because there’s what the British people needed a word after that. no heart in the play. You can’t was a distraction from the war, a sympathize with any of them. If celebration of British life, and a “I fixed the paper into the machine there was a heart, it would be a reason to continue to fight for that and started: Blithe Spirit. A Light sad story.” Apparently Coward’s life. And that’s what he delivered in Comedy in Three Acts,” he wrote light touch on serious matters Blithe Spirit. in his memoir Future Indefinite. was a welcome relief for London “For six days I worked from eight audiences. The show ran for almost Amy Warner, Bob Davis and Sally Wingert. to one each morning and from two 2,000 performances, setting a Photo by Dan Norman. GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 Coward said. “If there was a heart, it would be a sad story.” It keeps us in high spirits, however, through well-crafted scenes and characters who create their own worlds that critic Irene Oppenheim describes as “abstract naturalism.” Coward’s play would not have endured so long if it was not so well written. Through his well- structured scenes and expansive vocabulary, Coward provides particularly powerful word crafting, especially in the scenes in which Charles speaks to Elvira but Ruth perceives him as talking to himself or to her. “New playwrights should study it,” Guardian writer Susannah Clapp states, “as they should the spectacular moments of spectral action in which childish magic and adult chilliness meet.” This Coward’s Comedy: Still paradoxical pairing – the childish with the adult – is arguably what Laughing After 75 Years makes Blithe Spirit so compelling and so entertaining. Elvira’s flirtatious commands, Ruth’s by Gina Musto, Literary Intern cool control and Charles’ childish charm all butt up against Madame Blithe Spirit was first performed Lansbury, in London in 2014 and Arcati’s profound belief and her in London in 1941 and, despite the a U.S. tour in 2014-2015. There ridiculous actions. These qualities passing of time, Noël Coward’s have been numerous regional of childishness and the impossible humor feels as fresh as it did 76 performances of Blithe Spirit, play into the stage magic of the years ago. Though fashion and fads including a production at the show, the “theatrical slight of have changed, this “improbable Goodman Theatre in Chicago for its handing taking place in front of farce” by Coward lives on, much 1956-1957 season, at the Bay Street the audience’s eyes,” as Clapp like its ghostly protagonists. Theatre in Sag Harbor, NY, in 2002 describes it, with the theater and at American Players Theatre magic created by séances and Since its premiere, Blithe Spirit in its 2011 season. The comedy has ghosts on stage. These elements has been revived countless times. also been performed at the Guthrie create a space where we know After the Broadway opening in once before, in our 1997-1998 we are being fooled but the story November 1941, it was performed season. happening before our eyes makes many times in London, including us believe it is real. Theater does productions in 1970 and 1976. Situational comedy abounds this all the time, but the fact that it There have been several Broadway throughout the show, playing happens against claims of Madame revivals, such as a production in with misunderstanding between Arcati being a fraud and within the 1987 featuring Richard Chamberlain characters and differences in mystical world that commandeers as Charles, and in 2009, featuring perception. For the most part, Charles’ life gives it an extra ounce Angela Lansbury as Madame Blithe Spirit is a lighthearted romp of command over an audience. Arcati. The 2009 production led but nevertheless, it hints at the to a staging by the same director, woes of marriage, loss and death.