THEATER REVIEW : A Spirited Coward ‘Spirit’ in Costa Mesa

A portrait of Noel Coward hangs atop the stage at South Coast Repertory, wedged right between the masks of comedy and tragedy. And the spirit of Sir Noel, the avatar of witty sophistication who proved that style can actually be preferable to substance, is very much onstage, too.

Witness the character of Charles Condomine, as played by the dashing Nicholas Hormann. Supremely comfortable in a dinner jacket, Charles can whip up a drink (“Dry martini, darling?”) while tossing off bon mots with the poise of a man who knows his hair is perfectly brilliantined and his breeding is perfectly brilliant.

“Blithe Spirit” opened in 1941, with blitzkrieged Londoners walking on planks laid over rubble to get into the Piccadilly Theatre, where the play ran for 4 1/2 years.

Coward the master entertainer knew what to give his audience in its time of woe: a polished comedy about ghosts that said that death was not the end. And “Blithe Spirit” carried the doubtlessly comforting reminder that if you could get back someone you loved, that person might still be a royal pain in the derriere.

Charles invites to his country home the local medium, Madame Arcati, for an evening of seance. His too-too wife, Ruth (Mary Layne), and their rather-rather neighbors, Dr. (John-David Keller) and Mrs. (Mary Kay Wulf) Bradman, are a-twitter at the prospect of so exotic an evening, but being as well-bred as they are self-important, they remind each other to be polite and not laugh at the local lunatic.

Madame Arcati arrives and, in a splendid portrayal by Jean Stapleton, her hosts don’t know whether to laugh or to offer laurel wreaths. Wearing layer upon layer of fringed clothing, her frizzy red hair sticking out from a squashed beret with an unidentifiable feather, she looks like Rembrandt reincarnated into a mad bohemian genius. She immediately requests a martini.

This is a woman whose magic cannot be ordered about. Eager to get started, Charles informs her, “The time is drawing near,” to which she replies with imperious nonchalance, “Who knows, it might be receding.” They watch in joyful awe as she warms up for her meeting with the beyond, rolling her arms like a pitcher, going belly down on the pouf, doing the breaststroke. They are all ears when she says in a suddenly deep voice, “There are one or two things I want to explaaaaain.”

Of course, nothing much needs to be explained once Madame Arcati has conjured up Charles’ first wife, Elvira (Nike Doukas). Impetuous, spoiled, both high- and mean-spirited, you understand at once why Charles loved her and was glad to be rid of her.

And Elvira’s first order of business is to destroy whatever semblance of a happy home Charles and Ruth have made. She turns on a 100-watt smile as she begins the taunting that quickly drives Ruth from upper-crust smug to overtly hysterical.

Layne gives Ruth a wonderful lockjaw quality and can perfectly deliver lines such as, “I wish you wouldn’t be facetious with the servants, Charles.” Set designer Cliff Faulkner provides her with a lovely, vivid home, full of books and odd knickknacks and just slightly over-decorated, as if Ruth just couldn’t let well enough alone.

As Charles, Hormann has the deeper self-possession of a man who always amuses himself, even if others won’t and are therefore being tiresome. But he is particularly good at hinting at some kind of raging interior life, which the female characters don’t have. Coward, the then-closeted homosexual, appears to give Charles a bit of depth, as pampered and spoiled as he is, and Hormann touches it without cumbersome examination.

In the hands of director William Ludel, the almost-three-hour play slows midway, but picks up pace again and gallops home. Ludel makes an appropriately amusing nod to the Condomines’ self-absorption: He has Edith (Marnie Crossen) the maid struggle across the stage, her little frail body almost toppling under the weight of a heavy tray, while the couple lounges about finishing an argument.

Whichever wife he argues with, Charles maintains perfect aplomb and hilarious understatement. “I grieve to see that your sojourn into the other world hasn’t improved you in the least,” he says to Elvira, stern but secretly pleased. In London, 1941, there was a real fear that the pleasant and frivolous part of life might be forever eradicated. “Blithe Spirit” is Coward’s personal victory over Hitler.

* “Blithe Spirit,” South Coast Repertory, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, Tuesday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 2:30 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m. Ends May 14. $26-$36. (714) 957-4033. Running time: 2 hours, 45 minutes.

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Marnie Crossen: Edith Mary Layne: Ruth Nicholas Hormann: Charles John-David Keller: Dr. Bradman Mary Kay Wulf: Mrs. Bradman Jean Stapleton: Madame Arcati Nike Doukas: Elvira A South Coast Repertory production. By Noel Coward. Directed by William Ludel. Sets by Cliff Faulkner. Costumes by Ann Bruice. Lights by Doc Ballard. Sound by Garth Hemphill. Production manager Michael Mora.