Noel Coward
17th-20th March 1999
About The Play
Charles Condomine, whose first wife Elvira has been dead for seven years, has
been reasonably happy with his second wife Ruth. After he invites Madame
Arcati, a local medium, to conduct a seance in their home, Elvira returns from
the dead. Determined to get Charles to herself forever, she arranges several
'accidents', one of which culminates in Ruth joining Elvira. Now plagued by
two jealous squabbling spirits, Charles bids them both farewell and his two
wives are left petulantly tearing the house apart.
Born in 1899 - 1999 is therefore his centenary. He trained at the Italia Conti school and
one of his first stage appearances was in "Peter Pan" in 1913.
He started writing plays
in 1923 and went on to write at least fifteen more. He acted in many, producing most of them
and he also wrote words and music for revues and at least half a dozen operattas.
He acted in films, particularly patriotic "stiff upper lip" subjects in the 2nd World War.
His last film was "The Italian Job" which is still shown regularly on TV.
Because of his prolific talent he was known as "The Master". We find that difficult to
contradict!
Created by Steven Croft
Modified - 2 February 1999
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