Playwright Rachel Crothers was for three decades (1906-1937) a force on Broadway, with nearly 30 productions on the Great White Way. She was concerned with women’s issues from the beginning, examining such problems as the double standard, the conflict between career and home life and trial marriage.

She was also a social activist, founding the Stage Women’s War Relief during World War I so actresses could become involved in the war effort via charitable contributions, free tickets and the like.

Known as a consummate craftsperson, Crothers’ wrote plays that are now mostly out of print and largely forgotten. Her last play, Susan and God, was revived on Broadway last season. Now Lamb’s Players Theatre brings it to local audiences through Sept. 23. Robert Smyth directs.

Susan and God looks like a Noel Coward play, with the idle rich sitting around gossiping about each other, but it plays less bitchy and at least ends up more socially responsible than the works of the master of drawing-room comedy.

At the top of the play, friends are gathered at the splendid country house of Irene (KB Mercer) for the return of socialite Susan Trexel (Sarah Zimmerman), unhappily married and newly returned from a solo trip to Europe, where she hoped to find an excuse for divorce. She bubbles in, announcing she has found a new, “practical” religion (you know, the type that requires confession but not reform).

Her friends are in various stages of romantic liaisons with inappropriate partners, but Susan assures them they will be fine if they “get spiritual.” Meanwhile, she avoids the log in her own eye – her still-adoring but alcoholic husband Barrie (Lance Arthur Smith) and their gawky, lonely, farmed-out-to-boarding-school, 12-year-old daughter Blossom (Kelli Plaisted).

Also in the group are Irene’s paramour Michael O’Hara (David Cochran Heath), “Stubbie” Stubbs (Doren Elias) and his new wife, former actress Leonora (Colleen Kollar), the young and athletic Charlotte (Cynthia Gerber) and odd man out Clyde (Cris O’Bryon), who doubles on the baby grand with era-appropriate piano stylings.

Susan’s friends are first amused at her new enthusiasm, then annoyed as she torpedoes some of their relationships. But they also have front-row seats when Susan begins to realize what an appalling mess she and Barrie have made of parenthood and then has to decide whether divorce is really what she wants.

Smyth keeps the pace moving in this comedic bauble, aided immeasurably by a terrific cast and fabulous tech work by costume wizard Jeanne Reith (who makes period costumes better than anyone), set designer Nick Fouch and lighting designer Nate Parde.

The acting is fine all around, but this is Zimmerman’s play, and she makes the most of it. A Lamb’s discovery who went on to the Boston Conservatory and returned for an MFA from the USD/Old Globe program, Zimmerman is absolutely luminous, taking over the stage whenever she’s on it.

The latest Lamb’s kid is Plaisted, natural as they come as Blossom, who’s been acting since she was eight. Keep your eye on her.

Susan and God is not heavy fare, but provides a fine and enjoyable outing for a summer evening.

Susan and God plays through Sept. 23, at Lamb’s Players Theatre in Coronado. Shows Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; matinees Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. For tickets call (619) 437-0600 or visit lambsplayers.org.

What happens when you open one of those maddeningly locked adjoining doors in a hotel room?

This question was the inspiration for playwright Alan Ayckbourn’s Communicating Doors, in its San Diego premiere through Sept. 23 at Cygnet Theatre. Esther Emery directs.

Ayckbourn, generally considered Britain’s most successful living playwright, is known for resuscitating farce on the British stage with pieces typically revolving around extramarital affairs or class conflicts.

In Communicating Doors, Ayckbourn has created what he describes as a combination of romance, comedy, thriller, sci-fi adventure and morality play. Along the way, he pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and the film Back to the Future.

The play opens with dominatrix Poopay (Jessica John, in the most amazing outfit seen this side of a leather convention) calling at a hotel for what she assumes will be a kinky encounter. What she finds is the doddering Reece (Tim West), barely able to get to the door, and his business partner Julian (Manny Fernandes).

It turns out the whip won’t be necessary, as the dying Reece only wants Poopay to witness a document he has written, confessing his part in the deaths of his two wives. When she finally does sign, and Julian gets wind of it, murder is in the air. Poopay tries to escape by stepping through the adjoining door which appears to lead to a closet; this is the time machine, and will be used to move the action between 1987, 2007 and 2024.

Poopay will meet Reece’s wives Jessica (Brenda Dodge) and Ruella (Sandy Campbell) and the hotel’s rather dim detective Harold (Craig Huisenga) on successive trips to the closet.

The point of this sci-fi farce is that, with concerted effort, intelligent and motivated women can change the future. The men in Communicating Doors don’t fare as well, portrayed as feeble, grasping, stupid or downright homicidal maniacs.

Director Emery does a splendid job of keeping all those balls in the air; it’s a wonder the cast can remember what year they’re in and what they know at any given point. Scenic designer Nick Fouch (and the expecting-any-minute Emery’s husband) gets kudos for his terrific set, as does Eric Lotze for his lighting design and Shulamit Nelson-Spilkin for the costumes.

The cast is uniformly excellent, but the night belongs to John, with that eye-popping costume, spot-on Cockney accent and heart softer than one might expect.

I could have done without the too-sweet ending (in fact, the last five minutes could easily be cut). But, otherwise, this is a delightfully fluffy evening of theater.

Communicating Doors plays through Sept. 23, 2007 at Cygnet Theatre. Shows Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. For tickets call (619) 337-1525 or visit www.CygnetTheatre.com.