If you’re looking for a good time or upbeat entertainment from a night at the theater, don’t go see “Autumn Elegy,” which opened this weekend at Penobscot Theatre in Bangor.

The play, written by Charlene Redick in 1989, is slow, uneventful and long. It’s nearly 15 minutes into it before anyone even says anything, and even then, the dialogue consists of the single word “wood.”

In other words, this is not a play for the MTV crowd.

But if you’re looking for a piece of drama that is thought-provoking, well-staged, challenging, and ultimately the story of one woman’s dignified victory in a time of potential defeat, “Autumn Elegy” is the ticket.

Directed with a patient hand by Mark Torres, this quiet play is set in the backwoods of Anywhere, USA — but quite obviously designed by set man Jay H. Skriltez to recreate Maine with a floor of fresh-fallen leaves, and a yard of bare trees, pine trees and various outbuildings. Indoors, which is presented through a missing fourth wall, a woodstove is fired up and even has a black kettle pumping out a curl of steam throughout the performance. Birds sing somewhere beyond the set, and there’s a sweet smell of autumn permeating the air.

The action of the play — if you can actually label this understated script as having action — involves Manny and Cecelia Litchfield, an elderly couple who retreated to the wilderness 50 years ago to recover from the ravages of the Depression and to homestead on some inherited land. Manny is a jaded old man, a stock market wizard who is scarred by his loss of the American Dream, propelled by superstitions, and unyielding about his ideas, especially when it comes to Cecelia. So he doesn’t take it well when she announces that she is leaving him to be admitted to the hospital where she plans to get treatment for her increasingly debilitating cancer.

In many ways this play is Manny’s story. Cecelia, after all, has her act together. She knows she is dying, and she chooses exactly how she will handle the event. Despite her rustic lifestyle, she intends to die in elegance and peace, in a more convenient setting where she no longer has to take care of the dependent Manny and he will not see her in the throes of discomfort.

But Manny has to endure a fate that, in its own way, involves a deeply devastating form of suffering. He must face the loss of his wife and the reality that his love is not enough in this situation. He must let go. He cannot have it his way this time.

Most of the emotional texture of this play comes from Manny, and Gardner Howes, in that role, deserves the credit for making sure that complicated texture is rich. A look in his eye, a disgruntled mumble under his breath, a startling inflection in his voice make him seem so real, and he keeps it going from lights up to lights down.

Muriel Kenderdine is fine as Cecelia, and she certainly has the right look of regality. But she’s not quite as convincing as Howes, and lacks some of the warmth and sincerity he puts into the least likely of moments.

Larason Gutherie, as a neighbor, and Heather Glenn-Wixson, as a social worker, round out the supporting cast with adequate performances.

There are so few words in “Autumn Elegy,” so many blank spaces in which you simply observe this couple going about their regime, that the play could quickly deteriorate into a depressing round of yawns. And, it’s likely that some will feel that way about it. You are definitely forced into a slow, methodical world. But if you can give yourself over to it, the experience is both unusual and worthwhile with some important messages for both young and old theatergoers.

“Autumn Elegy” will be performed 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 20. For tickets, call 942-3333.

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