Back Row, L to R: Todd Lipphardt, Jayne Pleasants, Assisstant Director, Michael Lanzilotta, Cathy Myers, Stage Manager and Set Dresser, and Matthew Eberz
Second Row, L to R” Emily Wright, Diandra Mundy, Julie Harris and Berney Kirkland
There’s a particular satisfaction in watching a well‑ordered life come apart with precision. That’s the quiet promise of Blithe Spirit, Noël Coward’s sharply constructed supernatural comedy, and the reason the Highlands‑Cashiers Players have chosen it for their May production.
The setup is simple. Charles Condomine, a novelist researching the occult, invites a local medium to his home for what he assumes will be an entertaining experiment. Instead, the séance works, summoning the ghost of his first wife, Elvira–sharp, amused, and entirely unwilling to leave. Only Charles can see her. His current wife, Ruth, cannot. That imbalance drives the comedy and the complications that follow.
Coward wrote Blithe Spirit in 1941, during the Blitz, in a matter of days. It became one of London’s longest‑running plays, not because it offered escape, but because it shaped chaos into something precise. The play builds in clean, logical steps even as the situation grows absurd, with humor rooted as much in structure as in dialogue.
Under director Michael Lanzilotta—who’s been with Highlands‑Cashiers Players since 2013–this production leans into that balance. Lanzilotta divides his time between acting and directing, taking on one of each per season. He recently appeared in The Mousetrap; this time he’s behind the scenes, working with what he calls an unusually strong cast. “It’s a funny dark comedy,” he says, “and what a delight this has been.”
Remarkably, he was able to cast the entire show in a single audition, and most of the actors have worked with the company before–an advantage in a play that depends on timing and rhythm. Tod Lipphardt plays Charles, with Diandre Mundy as Elvira and Berney Kirkland as Ruth. Marsha Shmalo returns as Edith, the maid whose role proves more consequential than it first appears. Matthew Eberz and Emily Wright play Dr. and Mrs. Bradman, while Julie Harris takes on Madame Arcati, the eccentric medium whose séance sets everything in motion.
As the play unfolds, what begins as a comic disturbance becomes more complex, with shifting alliances, unintended consequences, and a resolution that offers little sense of control. What lingers is less the supernatural than the idea that the past doesn’t disappear—it rearranges itself.
Now in its 31st season, Highlands‑Cashiers Players remains an all‑volunteer nonprofit, producing four shows annually plus a holiday performance. Blithe Spirit fits that model well. It’s a play that rewards precision but thrives on energy–less about ghosts than about how some things, once set in motion, don’t go away.
The production runs May 14–17 and May 21–24, with Thursday and Friday performances at 7:00 P.M., Saturday at 5:00 P.M., and Sunday matinees at 2:00 P.M. Tickets are $25 for general seating and $35 for cabaret seating, available at highlandsperformingarts.com. Don’t miss it.
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