Blithe Spirit-Noel Coward

[Emerald Wolvenhowl]

Title: Blithe Sprit
Playwright: Noel Coward
Form: play. Originally performed on stage in 1941
Age: Mid- teens and upwards
a teeny bit.

Brief Summary

Charles Condomine lives in Kent, England, with his second wife Ruth. He is writing a book, which needs more research on the topic of Mediumship, and he admits to Ruth that he is rather sceptical of those who claim to be spiritual mediums. Despite this, he invites a local medium known as Madame Arcati into their home to hold a seance evening with a couple of their friends. From hereon, the rest of this play focuses on the goings on during the seance and the effects afterwards.

Overall

Noel Coward is famous for being witty and this script confirms it. I was chuckling all the way through from start to finish. It is an entertaining and light- hearted read while revealing some of the attitudes toward mediums and the spirit world during that time, as well as lightening up what
normally be considered as dark themes.

This play contains what I would call genuine humour; in other words it lacks expletives and foul language is not used as a tool to create comedy.

The downside

At the moment, I am struggling to find much of a downside. In a way, I kind of wish it was longer because it consists of three small acts and I didn't want it to end yet. But then that is a good thing because it doesn't take all that long to read even for a slow reader like me. The only other thing I can think of is that I didn't feel much for any of the characters but that might have been because I was too busy laughing.