Blithe Spirit by Noël Coward
29-31 October 2025 in the Reading Room, Ovingham
To mark our 50th anniversary, we put on a production of Noël Coward’s classic comedy, Blithe Spirit. This was the very first play we produced, in 1976.
Charles, a successful novelist, organises a séance with the eccentric medium Madame Arcati as part of his research into the occult for his next novel. He gets a lot more than he bargained for when the séance attracts the ghost of his late first wife, Elvira – a beautiful, fun-loving, sarcastic, argumentative, and ‘spirited’ presence. Determined to reclaim Charles, Elvira immediately sets out to wreck his marriage to his second wife, Ruth.
With Ruth unable to see Elvira, things quickly spiral into a characteristically Cowardian mix of hilarity, drama and farce as events take ever more unexpected turns.
The performance was produced in Halloween, for a ghost story with a difference. We put on three performances, on the 29th, 30th, and 31st of October 2025, in the Reading Room, Ovingham.