Surreal 'Dead Man's Cellphone' Explores Life and Death

West End Players Guild production blends fantasy and absurdity

Apr. 13, 2026 at 10:07pm

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A bold, graphic black silhouette of a ringing cellphone against a high-contrast red and white background, conveying the fantastical and disconnected nature of the play's exploration of life, death, and technology.A surreal theatrical experience that blurs the lines between the living and the dead through the lens of digital obsession.St. Louis Today

Sarah Ruhl's play 'Dead Man's Cellphone' opened this past weekend at West End Player's Guild in St. Louis. Directed by Summer Baer, the surreal drama examines what happens when a stranger inserts themselves into the lives of a deceased man's family, blending fantasy and absurdity as the protagonist Jean tries to connect with the dead man's eccentric relatives.

Why it matters

The play explores themes of human obsession with digital technology and its effects on relationships, as well as how we idealize the departed when we may know little about them. The production's experimental and abstract nature will appeal to fans of avant-garde theater, while the talented cast and crew create a visually poetic, ominous, and dreamlike world.

The details

In the play, Jean (Nicole Angeli) answers the ringing cellphone of an unconscious man named Gordon (Ben Ritchie) in a café, inserting herself into the lives of his eccentric family members, including his domineering mother (Payton Gillam), timid brother Dwight (Nick Freed), and frustrated wife Hermia (Lynett Vallejo). Director Summer Baer transforms the performance space into a three-quarter round stage, thrusting the audience into Jean's distorted world. The cast delivers strong performances, with Gillam as a scene-stealer and Vallejo's drunken monologue a highlight.

  • The play opened this past weekend at West End Player's Guild.
  • It will continue its run through April 19, 2026.

The players

Sarah Ruhl

The playwright who wrote the surreal drama 'Dead Man's Cellphone'.

Summer Baer

The director who transformed the performance space and created a visually poetic, ominous, and dreamlike world for the production.

Nicole Angeli

The actress who plays the protagonist Jean, a kind soul who inserts herself into the lives of the deceased man's family.

Ben Ritchie

The actor who plays the deceased man Gordon, whose unapologetic opportunism contradicts Jean's posthumous idealization of him.

Payton Gillam

The actress who steals the scenes as Gordon's domineering, eccentric mother and other characters.

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What they’re saying

“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.”

— James Lindhorst, Reviewer

“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.”

— James Lindhorst, Reviewer

What’s next

The play will continue its run at West End Player's Guild through April 19, 2026.

The takeaway

While the surreal and abstract nature of 'Dead Man's Cellphone' may not appeal to all theatergoers, the production's talented cast and crew have created a visually striking and thought-provoking exploration of the human obsession with technology and the idealization of the departed.