Adobe’s otherworldly ‘Blithe Spirit’ offers keen insights
Novelist Charles Condomine invites the flamboyant medium Madame Arcati to conduct a séance while he researches his latest book. It all backfires when the ghost of his temperamental and annoying first wife, Elvira, returns to haunt him.
The Adobe Theater will open Noel Coward’s classic comedy “Blithe Spirit” on Friday, Jan. 6, running four weekends through Jan. 29.
The famous writer stages the séance to debunk mediums as tricksters and frauds, director Kathleen Welker said. But his scheming backfires. Unaware of his real motives, Madame Arcati thinks she’s been hired to lead a genuine search into the ghostly hereafter. When Elvira surfaces, Charles’ second wife, Ruth, is none too happy.
“I played Elvira as an actor at a little
community theater in Alabama,” Welker said. “It was so charming. Noel Coward has such keen insights into people, personalities and relationships.”
Elvira makes continuous attempts to disrupt Charles’ marriage to Ruth, who cannot see or hear the ghost. The befuddled Charles seems to be talking to thin air, as Ruth starts to question his sanity.
The Albuquerque cast includes Stephen Zamora as Charles, Carolyn Hogan as Ruth, Jen Stephenson as Madame Arcati and Lorri Oliver as Elvira.
“Blithe Spirit” premiered in London’s West End in 1941, running for 1,997 performances, a British theatrical record surpassed only by Agatha Christie’s “The Mousetrap.” It played on Broadway 647 times and has been successfully adapted for film, TV, musical theater and radio. It enjoyed several West End revivals and returned to Broadway in 2009 with Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati and Rupert Everett as Charles.