photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Amanda Thomas McCoy, right, and Penni Hansen rehearse for Theatre Lawrence's production of "Collected Stories."

The director of Theatre Lawrence’s current production considered giving the 26-year-old play a more contemporary look, but one thing stood in his way: a landline telephone.

The ringing phone — with not even an answering machine to quiet it — plays a small but significant role in Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories,” and director Doug Weaver just didn’t think a cellphone could be substituted and have the same emotional impact.

But apart from that — and the mention of literary names that are less talked about these days (think Delmore Schwartz, Anita Brookner, Saul Bellow) — Weaver thinks the play “travels well” into the 21st century.

The themes and issues that Margulies explores in his Pulitzer-finalist play — aging, maturity, honor, literary “borrowing,” competitive interpersonal relationships — are “pretty timeless,” Weaver says.

And in one way at least, the play was well ahead of its time: Its only characters are two women, one of them well past middle age.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Amanda Thomas McCoy, right, and Penni Hansen rehearse for Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Collected Stories.”

“This play has been fascinating me for about 15 years, because it’s just two women,” Weaver says. “And there aren’t a lot of great roles written for women in their 50s and 60s.”

The role he’s referring to is that of Ruth Steiner, played by Penni Hansen.

Hansen, who’s been acting for 50 years, was immediately drawn to the role, she says.

“I’m 65, and there aren’t a lot of opportunities for women that are older to do a show like this,” she says, adding that she identified with the Ruth character in other ways as well. “When you get to be my age, you’ve gone through a lot of life experiences, and I have a lot of things in common with this character — and that’s what you have to draw on as an actor.”

The Ruth character is a famous short story writer, at least in literary circles, who agrees to mentor a young writer named Lisa Morrison, played by Amanda Thomas McCoy, another theater veteran, who was also deeply attracted to the script but for slightly different reasons.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Amanda Thomas McCoy, left, and Penni Hansen rehearse for Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Collected Stories.”

“I’ve loved this script for years,” she says. “The dialogue that is written for these two women is just so far above and beyond so many things that are written for women,” whether young or old.

The action opens in 1990 in Ruth’s Greenwich Village apartment and spans several years as the women become close, if increasingly competitive, and eventually find themselves in a bitter conflict.

Ruth — fatefully — tells her protege that writers make use of all kinds of information and tidbits, even things that happened to other people.

“We’re all rummagers,” Ruth says. “All writers are. Rummagers at a tag sale. Picking through the neighbors’ discards for material, whatever we can get our hands on. Shamelessly.”

The declaration comes back to haunt the older woman when Lisa “borrows” details from real-life personal experiences that Ruth had shared with her.

The drama does not have a tidy ending, which is another thing that Weaver likes about it.

“I think our sympathies lie in one way, but I think our intellect says both sides have a really good argument,” Weaver says.

The two actors — perhaps as a measure of their immersion in their roles — have a distinctly more partisan take.

“I want the audience to take (Ruth’s) side,” Hansen says flat out, while McCoy, hands down, says, “I have to go with Lisa.”

But whether sides are taken or not, McCoy says, “I hope people come and engage in it. It’s such a great show to inspire after-show discussion. It’s just a gem.”

“Collected Stories” was scheduled to open Friday at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, and will have multiple performances through Jan. 30. For information about tickets, call 785-843-SHOW (7469) or go online at theatrelawrence.com. Proof of vaccination and masks are required at all shows.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Amanda Thomas McCoy, left, and Penni Hansen rehearse for Theatre Lawrence’s production of “Collected Stories.”