SOUTHWICK PLAYERS PRESENT BLITHE SPIRIT

Noël Coward’s wonderfully witty smash comedy manifests itself at The Barn Theatre courtesy of the Southwick Players, marking the play’s 80th Year Anniversary from when it was first performed in the West End.

Eighty years ago, in the spring of 1941, as Londoners endured the Blitz, Coward slipped away to the seaside. There he stayed, smoking and rolling paper into his typewriter for 6 days, until the play was completed. Just 5 weeks later, its first performance was seen in Manchester, and then soon after in June 1941, it opened in London at the Piccadilly Theatre where it knocked up 1,997 performances. Even though the comedy was about ‘death’ at a time where ‘death’ had cast a dark shadow over most households, it seems that people just wanted escapism from the sadness of war at home and into the theatre for a good laugh.