Blithe Spirit Archives - North West End UK

Director Hannah Ellis Ryan of Her Productions illuminated Hope Mill Theatre with her production of Blithe Spirit. Ellis Ryan has had some fabulous successes in her previous direction of ‘Vignettes’ and ‘Taming of the Shrew’ at Hope Mill, so I was thrilled to be asked to review her latest masterpiece. Blithe Spirit is a High-Spirited Comedy by the Masterful Noël Coward, the play was first seen in the West End in 1941 and ran for 1,997 performances, which was a new record for a non-musical play in London. It also did well on Broadway later that year, running for 657 performances. The play was adapted for the cinema in 1945; a second film version followed in 2020. The plot relates to Charles Condomine (Peter Stone) a novelist, and his wife Ruth (Ntombizodwa Ndlovu), who have invited the...

Noel Coward’s comedy about death and spirits has been playing at theatres around the world since 1941. Enjoying immense success during a time of war when death hung over every household like a persistent mist, it tapped into our innate fascination with the supernatural to tell us more about our present circumstances. Not only was it been adapted into a musical and a feature film, but it also continues to remain a popular choice for adaptation by theatre companies around the world. I remember seeing a version of Blithe Spirit myself in the University of Delhi, wherein the story had been contextualized for an upper class contemporary Indian society. This universal relatability of the text and its characters is an ode to its timeless nature, still drawing packed audiences to date. In this pro...

Tag: Blithe Spirit

Blithe Spirit – Hope Mill Theatre

Blithe Spirit – Harold Pinter Theatre