The University of Wyoming Theater and Dance Department presents Blithe Spirit, a 1941 drawing room comedy by Noel Coward. The first performance begins at 7:30 p.m. tonight on the Main Stage in the Fine Arts Building, and performances will run through Saturday with a special matinee at 2 p.m. on Sunday. Charles Condomine, played by Sean Patrick Higgins, is married to Ruth, played by Amber McNew at right. Blithe Spirit is a ghost of a tale about what happens when a light hearted seance calls Charles’s first wife, center and played by Francesca Mintowt-Cryz, back from the grave.
People have always been fascinated with the supernatural. Shakespeare included it in many of his plays, whether they were tragedy or comedy. Television is littered with programs that deal with supernatural material, especially ghosts.
“Blithe Spirit,” a Noel Coward drawing room comedy about the afterlife, will be presented by the University of Wyoming Theater and Dance Department. Performances begin with tonight’s premier at 7:30 p.m. on the Main Stage of the Fine Arts Building. Performances will run through Saturday, with a special matinee performance at 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Charles Condomine is a successful novelist with a problem. It is a problem not even death can solve. In fact, death is part of the problem.
A séance has brought his first wife back from the dead and only he can see her, leading his second wife to believe that Charles has begun to lose his mind. Charles finds himself stuck between self-interested Elvira, his dead first wife, and overbearing Ruth, his very-much-alive second wife, as the play progresses.
His pleas to Madame Arcati, the quirky medium who conjured Elvira, are met with disappointment as she confesses her ineptitude.
“Blithe Spirit” embraces the supernatural but is more about the subtle dynamics of love and marriage. Elvira and Ruth could not be more different. Even in death, Elvira is full of spunk and tenacity. She is fiery and full of herself. Ruth is more conservative and reserved. Her personality is more refined and restrained by society’s expectations.
Coward used his plays to explore the institution of marriage as well as how gender roles were talked about and negotiated, Kirkaldie said. “He doesn’t really come out in some kind of treatise and make a statement about any of these things. He just investigates these kinds of subjects in his plays.”
“Blithe Spirit” was written in 1941 by Coward who was also a member of the British Secret Service at the time. He wrote the play during the time when London was getting hammered by the Germans in World War II and happiness and humor were far from the minds of most people. However, it seemed that no matter how bad things got around him, he was able to keep his own light hearted spirit.
The University of Wyoming Theater and Dance Department presents Blithe Spirit.
“He always claimed that he wrote his plays very, very quickly,” Kathy Kirkaldie, coordinator for the fine arts department said. Nobody knows if he did or not, but the language is so crisp and polished, she added.
Auditions for the plays are open to the general public. Anybody can get involved in any aspect of production from acting to technical work, Kirkaldie said.
Theater and dance is a participatory process. Not only are the actors and dancers performing for the audience, but the audience is giving back to the performers when they sit there and enjoy the show and show their appreciation through applause, Kirkaldie said.
