It’s not a good sign when that eternal bard of the human condition, Shakespeare, wraps up his seven ages of man with a gloomy outlook on getting old:

The sixth age shifts 
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon, 
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
 His youthful hose well sav'd, a world too wide,
 For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
 Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
 And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, 
That ends this strange eventful history, 
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
 Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

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Michael Learned and Granville Van Dusen. Photo by Carlos Delgado

Despite a few isolated examples, the suspicion that life as we know it ends with the settling of grey hairs on the head continues to manifest in the endless parade of youth-oriented products bursting out from the fashion and entertainment industries. Case in point: The romantic comedy genre with its pretty young things in ditzy scenarios chock-full of artificially contrived obstacles to happily ever after. Enjoyable as these effervescent confections can be, the implicit assumption remains that all the usual passions past a certain age and physique are either too sleepy or too chemical to be worth exploring.

How refreshing, then, to see playwright Kathleen Clarke upend conventional commercial wisdom with a piece of theatre that consists of nothing more than a set and two older people who unexpectedly find romance. At the least, Southern Comforts stands out as a declaration that the capacity to love has no expiration date. But the play and its production at the International City Theatre in Long Beach rates as more than a sly, sideways manifesto in rebuttal to society’s ageism. It’s a sparkling slice of life between sympathetic characters — a Southern belle and a retired Yankee — delivered with great humour, poignancy and grace.

Although the dialogue occasionally plays to the audience rather than stays within the naturalistic bounds of the characters’ relationship to one another, Southern Comforts unfolds like an optimistic counterpart to Tom Noonan’s What Happened Was. Two people meet, talk and fall in love. It’s a smooth, simple structure that works beautifully on account to Clarke’s keen sense of humanity and passionate performances by Ms. Michael Learned and Granville Van Dusen. The romance doesn’t feel like the product of wishful thinking, but the result of a poignant struggle to overcome burdens from the past and habits ingrained over a lifetime. With all due respect to Shakespeare, then, getting old doesn’t have to lead to a state “sans everything.” Rather, life will always present opportunities where there’s determination and the beating of hearts.

Southern Comforts. Written by Kathleen Clarke. Directed by Jules Aaron. Starring Michael Learned and Granville Van Dusen. On stage at the International City Theatre in Long Beach, Thursday through Sunday, through April 10. Visit www.internationalcitytheatre.org for tickets and information.

Mr. Sisa is Assistant Editor of www.thefrontpageonline.com
eMail: fsisa@thefrontpageonline.com
blog: www.inkandashes.net

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