Blithe Spirit

“A classic of high English comedy…addictively entertaining” Daily Telegraph 

Blithe Spirit opened in 1941 when it played for over 2,000 performances. It has been one of the world’s favourite comedies ever since. 

Novelist Charles Condomine and his second wife Ruth are literally haunted by a past relationship when an eccentric medium manages to conjure up the ghost of Charles’s neurotic first wife, Elvira, at a seance. 

They have assumed the preposterous Madame Arcati is a fraud who will simply entertain their dinner guests with a little chicanery and supply Charles with material for his forthcoming novel. But when Elvira appears, visible only to Charles, and is determined to sabotage his current marriage, life – and the afterlife – begin to get complicated. 

Alison Steadman plays the improbable clairvoyant, one of theatre’s most hilarious comic creations. Alison is one of our best-loved and most prolific actresses who recently enjoyed a West End run in Alan Bennett’s Enjoy. Also on stage she created the role of the monstrous Beverly in Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party and starred in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, for which she won an Olivier Award. Her films include ‘Shirley Valentine’ and Mike Leigh’s ‘Life Is Sweet’ and ‘Topsy Turvy’. Television work includes ‘Fat Friends’, ‘Selling Hitler’, ‘The Singing Detective’, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ and ‘Gavin & Stacey’. 

Thea Sharrock is an award-winning director who has previously worked with Daniel Radcliffe, Keira Knightley, Derek Jacobi, John Hurt, Ken Stott, Richard Griffiths and Damian Lewis in the West End. Her production of Rattigan’s After the Dance is currently running at the National Theatre.