VISITOR: Don Fowler plays a man caught between his living wife (Kimberly Patterson, left) and his dead wife (Meredith Rensa) in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit," at Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities. PHOTO: Alysa Brennan

The enduring popularity of "Blithe Spirit" owes as much to its archly whimsical premise as to the adept way that author Noël Coward dispatches his bon mots. Both are on display in the well-appointed Hermosa Beach Playhouse revival of this indestructible property.

Reportedly written in six days during the Blitz, Coward's "improbable farce" has been a crowd-pleaser since its 1941 London premiere, Broadway triumph and David Lean's 1945 film version. It transpires in the Kent homestead (capaciously realized by designer Christopher Beyries) of successful author Charles Condomine (Don Fowler) and sensible Ruth (Kimberly Patterson), his second wife.

Through the kind of epigrammatic exposition that Coward virtually patented, we soon surmise that the Condomines' marriage is more contented than rapturous, a crucial distinction. After dotty medium Madame Arcati (Sara Borgeson), an unwitting research subject for Charles' latest book, inadvertently conjures up Elvira (Meredith Rensa), his late first wife, all domestic heck breaks loose.

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