Smells like team ‘Spirit’

Yes, it can.

Riverwalk Theatre’s audience responded to this production with many rumbling chuckles and several murmurs of satisfaction, with a few snickers and snorts throughout the play, as Coward’s articulate and witty dialogue was presented crisply and clearly.

Central to the energy and movement of the play was the performance of Erin Hoffmann as the eccentric psychic Madame Arcati, a lithe and blithe spirit flitting and flying across the stage with a dramatic flair and a comic characterization that brought applause regularly. Hoffmann, who was outstanding this year in Over-the-Ledge Theatre Co.’s drama “The Vibrator Play,” demonstrated that she can handle comedy as well.

Sarah Hauck, as Elvira, the spouse brought back from the dead, brought additional electricity from the spirit world. She was appropriately loopy and loose, gliding in from the mysterious ether of “the other side” to create emotional havoc in the stoic household of Charles Condomine and his second wife, Ruth (Lynn Culp). Laughs abounded as the audience noted that Charles could see Elvira but Ruth could not.

The steady-as-she-goes demeanor of Culp was an effective counterpoint to the mischievous Elvira, and with the even-tempered stance of the staid Charles (Greg Pratt), she balanced out the oddball eccentricities of Arcati and Elvira.

Pratt and Culp also demonstrated they could dish out angry, engaging dialogue as they pranced across the stage with worthy wordplay.

Costumes, in the capable hands of Nancy Sisson, were attended to well. The carefully designed set put together by Leroy Cupp and Eric Chatfield helped set the tone for a living room suggestive of the early 1900s.

John Liskey and Jacqueline Payne, as Dr. and Mrs. Bradman, best friends of the Condomines, added additional stiff-upper-lip supporting roles. Chanae Houska, as the maid Edith, was a properly officious maiden.

In the hands of a less capable director, this play might have dragged into a sleepy, neverending saga. But director Susan Chmurynsky pulled off something of a coup here, matching the theme of the play, bringing someone — in this case, something — back from the dead with a stylish production.

Kudos.

“Blithe Spirit”

Rivewalk Theatre 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30; 8 p.m. Friday, Oct. 31-Saturday, Nov. 1; 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 2 $15/$12 student, senior, military ($10/$8 Thursday) 220 Museum Drive, Lansing (517) 482-5700, riverwalktheatre.com