Review: DEAD MAN’S CELLPHONE Sits in a Bizarre Space Between Life and Death

Sarah Ruhl’s surreal drama Dead Man’s Cellphone opened this past weekend at West End Player’s Guild. Directed by Summer Baer, Dead Man’s Cellphone examines what happens when a stranger inserts themselves into the lives of a deceased man’s family.

Ruhl’s protagonist Jean (Nicole Angeli) is enjoying a bowl of soup in a quiet café. Her lunch keeps getting interrupted by an unconscious man’s cell phone ringing at another table. After a few consecutive unanswered calls, Jean takes it upon herself to answer and keep Gordon’s (Ben Richie) mobile phone.

Dead Man’s Cell Phone is an otherworldly fantasy that sits somewhere in the between the space between Gordon’s life and death. Jean places herself into a pre-death purgatory and meets the dead man’s eccentric family and his mysterious business associates.

Ruhl’s fantasy asks the audience to suspend belief and dive into a fantastical dreamlike world. It’s quirky, outlandish, a bit phantasmagorical, and borders on the absurd.

Rather than staging the show on the existing proscenium stage, Baer completely transforms the performance space into a three-quarter round stage. She, literally and figuratively, thrust the audience into Jean’s distorted world. Baer has created a stylized, visually poetic setting that feels ominous, and a bit unhinged.

Nicole Angeli’s Jean is a kind soul. She wants to believe the best of a man she knew little about. Angeli gives Jean an Evan Hansen-like misguided altruism, showing Jean’s good intent while embracing the self-serving delusion that her manipulation is somehow helping Gordon’s grieving mother (Payton Gillam), his brother Dwight (Nick Freed), and his widow Hermia (Lynett Vallejo).

Ben Ritchie plays dead in the first scene, but he returns to open the second act with a monologue contradicting Jean’s posthumous idealization. His Gordon is an unapologetic opportunist. Richie captures Gordon’s exploitative predatory behavior. His impassive delivery discredits Jean’s sanctification of Gordon.

Payton Gillam is a scene-stealer as Gordon’s mother, his mistress, and as a character credited as “The Stranger.” Gillam uses a few simple costume pieces, her physicality, and vocal inflection to create three distinct characters. Most of her onstage work is as Gordon’s domineering agnostic mother. Her portrayal of the intimidating matriarch is peculiar and offbeat.

Nick Freed and Lynett Vallejo portray Gordon’s timid, introverted brother Dwight, and Gordon’s frustrated and deprived wife Hermia. Freed is likable as the uncomplicated and anxiously apprehensive Dwight. His affable simple-mindedness gives Jean comfort, making it easy for Dwight and Jean to connect.

Vallejo courageously goes all in during a single drunken scene. She throws herself about the stage with comedic ataxia. The character’s alcohol induced disassociation temporarily suspends her feigned grief while she spills the tea. It’s a lengthy and explicit sexual discussion just to eventually reveal that she knows about Gordon’s mysterious work. The scene felt an unnecessary to reach the character’s revelation at the scene’s end.

Director Summer Baer builds an ominous fantasy world. Her directorial vision, set design, and staging create a mystical dreamlike quality with a plausible connection between life and death. Baer’s collaborative approach with her actors resulted in the the creation of intriguing characters with colorful personalities.

The surreal script can best be described as oddly bizarre. Dead Man’s Cellphone is a fantasy that explores human obsession with digital technology and the effects it has on our relationships. But it goes beyond the plot device to connect the protagonist to a dead man’s family. It examines how we sanctify the departed when we may have little or no information about them.

Those who enjoy abstract and experimental theater will likely love Dead Man’s Cellphone. Others, while they may not like Ruhl’s play, should appreciate the exceptional work by the talented director, cast, and crew.

Dead Man’s Cellphone continues at West End Players Guild through April 19, 2026. Visit westendplayersguild.org for more information.