The current Meredith Performs Theatre presentation of Blithe Spirit, which will be the college’s entry in Region IV of the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, is a surprisingly strong student production of this comic masterpiece by Sir Noël Coward. Triangle theater veteran Eric Carl, last seen in Theatre in the Park’s superlative production of Art, adds another laurel to his acting crown with an incisive impersonation of wealthy author Charles Condomine, who cynically summons local medium Madame Arcati (junior Theatre major Athena Garner) to his estate to conduct a séance as research for his next novel.

Carl specializes in urbane and witty characters such as Charles, who is also a bit of a cad in the romance department, clandestinely flirting with other women while married to his now-deceased but flirtatious first wife Elvira (junior Musical Theatre major Rosa Wallace) and his lovely but bossy second wife Ruth (Meredith senior Natalie M. Hoffman). Charles sets up this séance as an after-dinner entertainment, but he gets a nasty surprise when the alluring ghost of the statuesque Elvira unexpectedly materializes in the Condomine living room, unseen by everyone but Charles.

Elvira thinks Charles’ love for her is so strong and enduring that he has summoned her from beyond the grave, and she is none too happy when he confesses that it was a ghastly “accident” that brought her back to the Condomine house in Kent. While an indignant Elvira ruthlessly schemes to get even with Charles, Charles desperately hunts for a way to avoid being an “astral bigamist.”

Eric Carl is terrific at expressing Charles’ increasing exasperation at the supernatural bind created by the séance gone awry. Rosa Wallace makes an alluring Elvira; and Natalie Hoffman hits just the right notes as Ruth, the not-quite-as-beautiful or sophisticated second wife who is, nevertheless, determined to distinguish herself by making the household run like clockwork.

Veteran actor Ian Finley and freshman Political Studies major McKenzie Carter, appearing in her very first Meredith Performs Theatre production, are suitably stuffy as the Condomines’ strait-laced friends, Dr. George and Violet Bradman; and Meredith Performs Theatre veteran Samantha M. Bland is a delight as the Condomines’ gawky country girl-turned-maid, who gallops through her duties like a big, clumsy puppy thundering through the house.

But it is Athena Garner who steals the show, with her wonderfully wacky performance as Madame Arcati, the stumbling, fumbling, bumbling medium who unintentionally ignites the plot by bringing the beautiful but acid-tongued Elvira back. Madame Arcati is a character with a capital C, and Garner explores every tic and twitch of this certified — and, perhaps, certifiable English eccentric.

From her initial entrance, wearing a ghastly hat with a three-foot feather that simply must be seen to be believed, Garner evokes belly-laughs with the way she delivers her ditzy dialogue and with her pratfalls. Sometimes, she brings the house down, without uttering a word, as she strikes a wide-eyed pose or sniffs the air for the merest hint of a scent of a ghostly visitor. Very near a consummate comedienne already, Athena Garner has a bright, bright future ahead of her in the theater.

Director Carnessa Ottelin not only gets stellar performances from Eric Carl and Athena Garner, but she stages Blithe Spirit with considerable style and wit, deftly orchestrating the action so that the less gifted comic performers can still milk their roles and dialogue for every comic gem therein.

Scenic designer James Cuthrell creates an exceptionally detailed set in the Studio Theatre in Jones Hall, and decorates it with a colorful assortment of Modern Art, including a copy of “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. Lighting designer Steven Roten subtly and skillfully distinguishes between natural and supernatural scenes, and costume designer Amy Massey dresses the cast in an impressive assortment of fashions from the 1930s.

Sound designer Julie Jones punctuates the action with a nice assortment of period recordings — including Elvira’s favorite song, “Always” — but the doorbell sound is deafening. It sounds like the Condomines have installed the world’s largest set of Westminster chimes as their doorbell. Indeed, the doorbell alone could waken the dead!

Meredith Performs Theatre presents Blithe Spirit Thursday-Saturday, Oct. 27-29, at 8 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 30, at 2 p.m., in the Studio Theatre of Jones Hall, 3800 Hillsborough St., Raleigh, North Carolina. $10 ($5 students and seniors). 919/760-2840. Meredith Performs Theatre: http://www.meredith.edu/dance/theatre/default.htm. Internet Broadway Database: http://www.ibdb.com/show.asp?ID=2087. Internet Movie Database: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038363/. Noël Coward Society: http://www.noelcoward.net/ [inactive 12/06]. Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival: http://www.kcactf.org/ [inactive 9/07].