THEATER REVIEW : Trying to Fan Flames of Yesteryear in ‘Later Life’

The setting is an elegant terrace overlooking Boston Harbor. From inside the house come the warm light and convivial sounds of a party. Outside, the green, metal patio furniture matches the ivy on the eggshell-colored windows, and the cushions are white, never mind what it costs to clean them. Everyone has a drink. This is A.R. Gurney country.

Gurney is the playwright who chronicles what some people say doesn’t exist: the interior lives of the wealthy, East Coast Anglo Saxon Protestants from which he comes. Some of his plays, such as 1988’s “Cocktail Hour,” which had its premiere at the Old Globe, offer witty and compassionate insight into this shaky old guard, gnawed by the knowledge that its day of extreme privilege is passing.

Now the Old Globe presents “Later Life,” a lesser Gurney that nevertheless might find a wide, sympathetic audience in its West Coast debut. At least that’s what another theater, South Coast Repertory, must be hoping. South Coast, about 80 miles north of the Old Globe, opens its production of “Later Life” later this week.

“Later Life” explores a scenario that may be attractive for older, well-heeled audiences to contemplate: What if a nice, divorced banker in his 50s attends a charming party around the corner from his Beacon Street apartment and meets a lovely woman with whom he almost had an affair when he was 22? And what if she’s now trying to get out of a bad marriage and is warmly inviting his confidences and fanning the flames of their long-ago attraction?

While the outcome is not as predictable as its contrived setting might indicate, “Later Life” is a strangely unfulfilling play. Austin (Frank Converse) considers Boston the Athens of America, and he worries that his beloved hometown might be losing its particular character. The trouble is, beyond being a repressed old dear, Austin doesn’t have much of a character, and his hopes and fears seem as colorless as the washed stone of the gracious house he is visiting (rendered beautifully by set designer Allen Moyer).

Ruth (Jennifer Harmon) is also colorless, despite Gurney’s giving her a tragic life history and a stormy marriage. She has the chirpy manner of a therapist who always knows the answer to every supportive question she asks. Ruth’s attempt to wake Austin with her cliched nostalgia (“We were doing something rare in this world; we were making a connection”) doesn’t add up. What would she wake him up to?

Things get more confused when Ruth turns suddenly from a cheerleader for intimacy to a disapproving judge. Austin has made some unforgivable misstep, but this viewer had trouble distinguishing it from any of his other comments.

“Later Life” is essentially a one-act comedy of manners, with a bonus track: two supporting actors play a stream of amusing party guests who venture onto the terrace and into John and Ruth’s rendezvous. Richard Easton is hilarious, whether as an ex-philosophy professor who composes an ode to his doomed affair with cigarettes or as a computer dweeb who wants John and Ruth to be amazed that his wife “is still using DOS 2.0, can you believe that?” In her multiple roles, Linda Atkinson tends to push. Her portrayal of an adoring, excited Southern housewife whose husband has just been transferred to Boston, however, is touching.

Director Nicholas Martin choreographs that pivotal scene, in which Ruth confides her troubles to the Southern couple, with a touch of genius: As Ruth confides her tragedy, the husband leaves her side and hands his wife a handkerchief to hand to Ruth. It’s a lovely observation of a certain man’s relationship to grief, worthy of Gurney’s finest plays.

“Later Life” is not one of those plays. Converse and Harmon look right, do well, but cannot complete the hole in the center of a hollow play.

* “Later Life,” Old Globe Theatre, Simon Edison Centre for the Performing Arts, San Diego, Tuesday-Sunday, 8 p.m., Saturday-Sunday matinees, 2 p.m. Ends Oct . 30. $19-$34. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

Frank Converse Austin

Jennifer Harmon Ruth

Linda Atkinson Other women

Richard Easton Other men

An Old Globe Theatre production. By A.R. Gurney. Directed by Nicholas Martin. Sets by Allen Moyer. Costumes by David C. Woolard. Lights by Michael Gilliam. Sound by Jeff Ladman. Stage manager Elizabeth Stephens.