Blithe Spirit
Chattanooga Theatre Centre 400 River Street, City of Chattanooga, Tennessee 37405
In Noel Coward's immortal classic comedy, we meet Charles Condomine, happlily married for the second time and living with this wife, Ruth. Charles, a novelist, becomes haunted, quite literally, by his first sife when in researching the spirit world for a new novel with the assistance of the delightful crack-pot medium, Madam Arcati, they happen to conur up Elvira, the previous Mrs. Condomine. Now the poor man finds there is no pleasing the two jealous wives, one quite alive and one quite deceased, who just can't quite get along. Things couldn't get worse...or could they?
Noel Coward took the title from Shelley's poem "To a Skylark." ("Hail to thee, blithe spirit! Bird thou never wert.")
Madam Arcati was originally played by Margaret Rutherford and most recently earned Angela Lansbury her fifth Tony Award in the 2009 Broadway revival.
Blithe Spirit has been performed at the CTC in 1945, 1965 (shown here) and 1994.