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49 pages 1 hour read

Noël Coward

Blithe Spirit

Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1941

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Background

Genre Context: Farce

In theatre, farce is a type of comedy that has highly exaggerated, improbable situations and uses physical comedy. The term originated in the 15th century to describe when actors would improvise comedic bits into the plays they were acting in. As a result, the word was often used derisively to describe a play of low merit.

By Coward’s time, a farce was a distinct genre of comedy. The genre often includes highly unlikely situations, a fast-paced plot, stereotypical or flat characters, exaggerated miscommunication, and broad physical comedy. It is often absurd and can include satire and parody. The characters are often extremely witty. Other examples of farce include Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Michael Frayn’s Noises Off, and Brandon Thomas’s Charley’s Aunt. Film examples include the works of Charlie Chaplin, those of the Marx Brothers, and Home Alone.

The play’s singular setting and accelerated timeline are examples of its farcical nature. The constraints of the setting heighten the improbability of the play’s problem. The house’s upper-class trappings contrast with the destruction and chaos caused by the spirits. The events of the play occur in a span of a week or two. The fast-pace of the play contributes to the humor while also giving it a sense of urgency. Coward uses farce to examine social anxieties surrounding marriage, class, and death. The humor gives his audience a respite from their worries while also getting them to think about their culture.

Cultural Context: Post-WWII England

The year before Blithe Spirit premiered, England experienced its most dramatic war-time losses, this time on the domestic front. Starting on September 7, 1940, the German army conducted multiple air raids on London. This Blitz lasted for 57 consecutive nights. The campaign lasted until May 11, 1941, and ended only when Hitler ordered the bombers east for his invasion of Russia. The Blitz damaged many parts of the city, including Coward’s own apartment.

After losing his apartment, Coward went to live with a friend in Wales. He used this time to write and decided that he should write a play to provide a cheerful diversion for the British. In less than six days he wrote Blithe Spirit. While some critics initially balked at the morbid subject matter for war-time audiences, the London audiences loved it. The show ran for nearly 2,000 performances, the longest run for a play in London at the time.

The inclusion of a ghost in the play’s plots also reflects a prominent contemporary cultural issue. Spiritualists had the belief that it was possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead, who are considered discarnate humans. The spirit world changed, which allowed the spirits to continuously evolve. Spirits can provide knowledge on moral, ethical, and spiritual issues. Mediums were used to contact the other side, and the field was dominated by women. Most Spiritualist adherents belonged to the middle and upper classes. One of the most prominent adherents was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author most well-known for his Sherlock Holmes stories. Coward was not a believer in spiritualism. Through the play, he hopes to remove romantic ideas around death and emphasize that death was simply death.

It peaked in America and Europe from the 1840s to the 1920s. The initial surge was driven by the Fox Sisters in the United States. In 1848, teenage sisters Kate and Maggie Fox told a neighbor that they heard a series of raps on the walls and furniture. These sounds, they said, suggested that there was an intelligent spirit in the house. They would hold séances that used tapping as a method of communication, just as Madame Arcati does in the play. Forty years later, Maggie admitted it was a hoax and illustrated how it was done. A year later, she recanted. The movement grew more due to World War II. The deaths from the fronts and the air raids renewed interests in mediums, as people wished to communicate with their loved ones. The belief that death was not the end was reassuring to many British.

Throughout the play, Madame Arcati alludes to the Society for Psychical Research. This organization existed, having been founded by journalist Edmund Rogers and physicist William F. Barrett in 1881 in England. The organization sought to apply scientific principles and methods to the study of the supernatural. They studied hypnotism, dissociation, mediums, apparitions, and séances.

Authorial Context: Noël Coward

Noël Coward was born to a poor family on December 16, 1899, in Teddington, Middlesex, in London, England. Coward began performing at the age of seven, and began performing professionally in 1911. In 1914, Coward became the protégé and lover of painter Philip Streatfield, and this relationship introduced him to high society, which is the setting for most of his plays.

Coward completed his first solo play The Rat Trap in 1918 during the World War I after being discharged from the Artists Rifles for health reasons. In 1924, Coward had his first major success, The Vortex. The next year, Coward premiered Hay Fever, the first of his plays that would go on to enter the theatrical canon. By 1929, Coward was one of the world’s most successful and profitable writers, and he even continued to experience success through the Great Depression. A film adaptation of Cavalcade won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Another of Coward’s plays that would enter the theatrical canon, Private Lives, in which Coward starred with Laurence Olivier, premiered in 1930, and the West End and Broadway runs sold out.

Blithe Spirit premiered in 1941 and ran for 1,997 consecutive performances on the West End before transferring to Broadway. It was adapted into a film in 1945. The play went on to be Coward’s most popular and most performed work. A 25-week British tour began in February 1942. The company was led by Coward himself and included Blithe Spirit, Present Laughter, and This Happy Breed.

Coward's post-war plays, though moderately successful, never matched his earlier works. In the 1950s, Coward worked as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs. In 1955, Coward recorded his Las Vegas cabaret act for the gramophone. It was so successful that Coward was asked to write and direct three TV specials, which included a production of Blithe Spirit in which he starred with Claudette Colbert and Lauren Bacall.

Coward’s legacy is widespread. Coward published more than 50 plays throughout his life. Four of his works remain in contemporary theatre repertoires: Hay Fever, Private Lives, Present Laughter, and Blithe Spirit. He remains known for his wit, flamboyance, and style, and his stylized dialogue likely influenced the writing of Harold Pinter. Many of his songs have been recorded by contemporary artists, such as Paul McCartney, Sting, Elton John, and the Pet Shop Boys. His work has been parodied widely, including by Monty Python. Among his awards and honors, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement, and an honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Sussex. The Times said of him, "None of the great figures of the English theatre has been more versatile than he" and that his plays are among "the classical tradition of Congreve, Sheridan, Wilde and Shaw". A 1999 The Stage poll named him as the second most influential person on the arts and entertainment, only after Shakespeare.

Coward died of heart failure at the age of 73 in Jamaica.

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