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From Insights, 2004“I will ever be grateful for the almost psychic gift than enabled me to write Blithe Spirit in five daysduring one of the darkest years of the war” (Noël Coward, quoted at Methuen, “Blithe Spirit by NoëlCoward,” http://www.methuen.co.uk/blithespirit.html (accessed 8 April 2004). Written and produced inthe thick of World War II in 1941, one might ask the question, what was there about that time and placethat would inspire the creation of one of the most popular and long-running comedies; “an improbablefarce in three acts”? What chord did it strike in audiences that were for the second time living throughthe dreariness of black outs, air raids, rationing, and the heartbreaking casualty lists caused by war foughton home soil?A look back to the author’s beginnings may give us some insight. Noël Coward was born inDecember 1899, and thus, was in the interesting position of growing up with a new century. Born tomiddle class parents of no small musical talent, Coward was weaned on amateur and professional theatricalproductions. His father, a piano salesman, was very good at musical improvisation, and Coward followedin his father’s footsteps. Nurtured in this atmosphere, he was in constant demand to perform, first,on his home turf and then in amateur productions. An avid observer of people, Coward developed thetalent of picking up the eccentric nuances in people that made interesting characters who translated wellto the stage and screen. And whereas some of his contemporaries dramatized the deep and hard aspects oflife evolving through the industrial age, he chose to orbit in social circles that were the epitome of glamour,many times frivolous with a tinge of cynicism. In large measure, Coward’s life, experience, and careermirrored the birth of a century and the growing pains of a generation.At the tender age of ten, Coward convinced his mother to answer an advertisement announcing theaudition for young boys to be part of a prestigious children’s theatrical group. Of the hundreds of letterssubmitted, there was something in Noël’s mother’s letter that piqued interest, and Noël was invitedto audition. His natural charm and stage presence was apparent and his young feet were firmly plantedon his life’s course as he joined his new theatre family. During this time, he made friends with a youngGertrude Lawrence who became a lifetime co-star and dear friend. He also befriended another youngactress, Esme Wynne, who later became a successful novelist and inspired Noël to add writing to his listof talents.As a young eighteen-year-old, drunk with his success on the stage and full of high, youthful ambitions,Noël had not felt much impact from World War I. But, in 1918, he was called up and, althoughfound physically unfit for active service, was assigned to serve nine months in the Artists Rifles. He wasmiserable with this interruption in his career. By the time he entered the war, England was well past theglamour of patriotism and was tired of the rationing, black outs, and general misery the war brought totheir shores.In some measure, it was a response of escapism from the weariness of war that inspired the spectacleproductions that were spun sugar, superficial and with a dash of cynicism that characterized the 1920sera. Coward was in the thick of it and whether he simply mirrored social mores of the time, or as somecriticized, created them, his plays during the twenties were considered sometimes immoral and shocking.They were wildly popular. A commentary of the opening night of The Vortex on his twenty-sixth birthdayacknowledges the “which came first” argument of whether art imitates life or vice verse.“Noël’s first nights had already attained fever-pitch of excitement they were never to lose. Celebritiespredominated: film and stage stars, usually one or two members of the Royal family, and socialitesgalore with their concomitant Rolls Royces, furs and jewels. They were beginning to talk a language oftheir own: St. John Ervine had already complained at having to sit next to a litter of them with their‘too divine’ and ‘simply marvelous darlings’. Whether the bright young things were trying to copy Noël’scharacters, who Mrs. Patrick Campbell said ‘talked like typewriting’, or whether Noël was holding up themirror to the socialites is not easy to decide, but one may suspect that it was the former” (Cole Lesley,10Utah Shakespeare Festival351 West Center Street • Cedar City, Utah 84720 • 435-586-7880