Studio Theatre's The Road To Mecca can be a tense, devastating play, but it comes most alive when its characters are laughing.

The playful, joyous friendship between an older artist and a young teacher in South Africa is the heart of Athol Fugard's play (also a film starring Kathy Bates). Their bond is one to envy, one where the two women challenge each other, inspire each other and make each other feel like children again -- the younger of the pair, Elsa, says as much herself in one of the work's most impassioned speeches. The duo is played with commanding strength and bursts of vulnerability by Holly Twyford as Elsa and Tana Hicken as her mentor, whose command over her life is being tested by the trials of age, the darkness of depression and a meddling pastor (Martin Rayner) who doubts her ability to care for herself.

The caliber of the cast brings a sense of loftiness to Joy Zinoman's assured direction of this classic, emotionally-arresting work. Fugard has a knack for writing what could be taken as an "issue play" (here, the question of whether or when the aged need to sacrifice some independence for safety) and making it so much more than a polemic. Here, there is no easy answer to that central question (and those who know the fate of the real-life Helen Martins, Miss Helen's inspiration, may find themselves even more conflicted), and there are so many other fascinating issues raised in the process - how artists get their inspiration; what can drive the simmering resentment of those who fear the eccentric. And above all, it's these three characters' stories, not the bigger questions, that really draw us in.

Miss Helen's cause for seclusion is her art, through which she has transformed her home into her own personal Mecca. Debra Booth's set is beautiful and shadowed, giving us hints of the quirky beauty of Helen's work without spelling out the majority of her masterpiece -- it's tempting to think about what a more unconventional set would have done for the production, but it turns out our imaginations probably do a better job of capturing those "monsters" and mosaics Helen has created.

The chief complaint about the work is its meandering pacing. It takes most of a long first act to get any real insight on what the play's conflict might be, and the second act, while much more engrossing, has about three false conclusions (and one throwaway revelation) before it's really at an end. But nearly three hours spent in the company of this rich language and giant actors is time well-invested.

The Road To Mecca runs through Oct. 12 at Studio Theater. Tickets are available online.