In Neil Simon’s new play Rose’s Dilemma the dead writer Walsh McLaren tells his wife, “Some things, like writing and dying, are best done alone.” Yet Rose Steiner, his aging, Pulitzer Prize-winning partner and devoted lifelong lover, won’t let him cross over to the Hereafter.

For the past five years, ever since Walsh dropped dead on to the flagstones of the patio from a heart attack, Rose has engaged in stimulating conversations and wild, nocturnal sex with the memory of her dead husband.

“Please come upstairs, Walsh. I hate it when we make love and you’re still down here,” she tells him.

Despite the visceral nature of her hallucination, she admits she’s a prisoner of her own romanticism and wholly responsible for conjuring his spirit—primarily because she’s afraid of moving on to the rest of her life.

“I’m afraid I won’t make it through the rest of my life alone,” she confides in her personal assistant Arlene.

Unfortunately, Rose has also lost her desire to write, and after five years of inactivity she’s sinking into debt and bankruptcy. Despite Arlene’s attempts to help her find a way to make money, Rose seems unconcerned about the prospect of losing her Hamptons-area house and is more interested in reminiscing with Walsh about their wild salad years as the toasts of the literary world.

But Walsh is pining for the after-life. He’s antsy to take his place in the literary canon, but worried about leaving his wife without any means to support herself. So late one night he tells her about an unfinished novel in the cupboard. When Rose balks at the idea of trying to finish the thing, he suggests a young ghost writer who lives in a nearby town. Rose, whether convinced by Walsh’s overbearing demands or (sub)conscious of the fact that her situation is dire, grudgingly complies.

It’s this conflict that really makes Simon’s play interesting. Rose hovers between the realization that everything Walsh says and does is ultimately a product of her vivid imagination, and truly believing that her dead husband is still with her in spirit form.

Rosemary Luke is tremendous as the eponymous character, simultaneously juggling the imperious intelligence of a literary dame, the wild spirit of a bon vivant in the late autumn of her life, a brave woman struggling with the love of her life’s death, an ego-driven diva and a deeply flawed human being who is blinded to the living by the dead. It’s a deeply felt performance that drives the play and seamlessly weaves Rose’s real and imagined worlds together into a funny, poignant dance on the razor’s edge between life and death.

Luke is only one of a refreshingly tight-knit cast of strong actors. As the dashing Walsh, Tom Marr brings a great deal of life to his dead character. Part Ernest Hemingway, part Sean Connery, Marr brings a wry resignation and bombastic wit to Walsh that perfectly reflects the way we imagine Rose projects herself upon him.

As Arlene, Lillie Morrisson deftly transforms her character from Rose’s deferential soundboard to effortlessly inhabit the play’s moral center. It’s a wonderfully natural performance situated at the very crux of Simon’s script.

In addition, Matthew Rose’s turn as Clancy, the young ghost writer brought in to doctor Walsh’s script, is a study in subtle control and artful acting. While Luke’s and Marr’s characters splash across the stage in bold colors, Morrisson and Rose hold the natural rhythms of the piece down with fine, nuanced drama.

The fact that the entire cast is so good proves that much of the play’s success must be attributed to its director, Conrad Selvig. His most polished effort to date, Rose’s Dilemma hums along at a perfect pitch and pace from first scene to last. In addition, Selvig’s attention to detail and craftsmanship in set design is just one more component  that elevates the play from good to great.

Finally, a hat’s off to stage manager Len Perry who has been helping Selvig make great local theater for years. These two have produced some memorable work, but Rose’s Dilemma is an example of a whole theater company expertly wielding the sharp end of their craft.”

ROSE’S DILEMMA plays Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm through March 19 at the Carl Cherry Center for the Arts, Fourth and Guadalupe, Carmel. Tickets are $20/general; $15/students and seniors. For reservations call 624-9478 or visit ticketguys.com.