Steel Beam's 'Later Life' lacks power

More than anything, “Later Life,” A.R. Gurney's bittersweet rumination on second chances, reflects the playwright's good instincts.

His inspiration for the play, in a revival at St. Charles' Steel Beam Theatre, is “The Beast in the Jungle,” Henry James' deeply resonant 1903 novella chronicling a life unlived.

“The Beast in the Jungle” is a moving account of the devastation resulting from the absence of a meaningful relationship — the kind of relationship fundamental to a well-lived life. It has consequence and elegance that “Later Life” lacks.

What James implies, Gurney makes obvious, too obvious. But lack of subtlety is only one of the play's problems.

At less than 90 minutes with no intermission, “Life” is brisk and amusing. The thing is, it just isn't that compelling. More problematic, it doesn't have the emotional impact that makes an enduring tale.

Gurney's version takes place in 1993 Boston, on the rooftop terrace of a brownstone overlooking Boston Harbor. The action unfolds during a cocktail party whose hostess turns matchmaker for buttoned up Austin (a nicely insulated, wholly credible Richard Culliton), a newly divorced banker sliding past middle age, and the amiable Ruth (Donna Steele), who is visiting from Las Vegas.

Turns out Austin and Ruth know each other, having met some 30 years earlier on Capri, when he was a young serviceman on leave and she was a young Midwestern girl on holiday. They were smitten, but Austin ended their affair before it began. He told Ruth he believed he was destined to experience some catastrophic event. Rather than burden her with it, he left and went on to live an entirely uneventful life while awaiting his life's most significant moment. As for Ruth, she married four times, losing her first husband to a land mine and her latest to gambling. Along the way, she lost her only child to leukemia.

The pair become reacquainted during a terrace tete-a-tete interrupted by a steady stream of one-dimensional party guests of Gurney's creation. Ably played by Ann Keen and Patrick Able, they include an elderly couple bickering over where they will retire; chatty Atlanta transplants who lustily embrace their new surroundings; a pal named Walt who nudges Austin toward romance; and best friend Judy, who wants a better life for the long-suffering Ruth. Mostly, they serve to illustrate the joy and disappointment of loving and being loved; the pinnacles and pitfalls inherent in every relationship and the savoring of one's own life, all of which Austin neglected so that he might maintain his vigil.

The question is, with a second chance in the offing, will Austin and Ruth seize it?

Unfortunately, director Terry Domschke's production never really generates the urgency that ought to animate “Life.” For Austin and Ruth, the stakes are incredibly high, but Domschke doesn't make palpable the potential ruin that awaits these characters if they make the wrong choice. And yet, the production's final, quietly heartfelt moments — notable for a sublimely unembellished performance from Steele — suggest the raw emotion that makes James' original a classic. If only Gurney had heeded the master.