Southern charm, over-the-top ‘80s style and plenty of comedy are the main tools used to tell one poignant tale of love and death.

With six meaty roles for women, Robert Harling’s 1987 off-Broadway play, “Steel Magnolias,” reveals the fierce loyalty that courses through the veins of six women steeped in the patois and customs of the deep American South. The play opens in Langley at Whidbey Island Center for the Arts at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10.

Directed by Tim Rarick, who previously directed “On Golden Pond” at WICA, all the action of “Steel Magnolias” takes place in Truvy’s Beauty Parlor in fictional Chinquapin, La. Here is illustrated the intricacy of six female lives as seen through the small-town gossip that reveals the ongoing cycles of birth, marriage and death of this archetypal Southern idyll.

Filled with lyrical Southern repartee and no shortage of lively verbal collisions, the play draws on the underlying strength and love of the townsfolk, elements which bolster the characters’ happiness and resolve through times both good and bad.

Bristol Bloom plays Shelby, whose wedding preparations are the focus as the play opens on Truvy’s salon. Bloom also happens to be a real-life hair stylist and knows a thing or two about what gets revealed in the course of a shampoo, cut and style.

“By nature I think hair salons allow people to reveal more than they would in any other setting,” Bloom said.

“In a matter of minutes, you tell your hairdresser things you haven’t told your spouse, mother, shrink and so on. In this particular salon, these women have built a bond over the years and the salon provides a format for life’s trials of life and death,” she added.

Indeed, as a young woman living with Type 1 diabetes, Shelby must deal with one life-changing trial that is the peg on which the action of the play stands.

Bloom said, for her, one line of Shelby’s sums up the spirit of her character: “I would rather have 30 minutes of wonderful, than a lifetime of nothing special.”

But just as the six characters of the play come to depend on the fullness of the circle that is created by their different styles, ages, spirituality and economic backgrounds, so these actors have come to develop a love of each other’s characters.

Bloom said it’s the wise and sophisticated Miss Clairee, played by Shelley Hartle, who spouts her favorite line: “If you don’t have anything nice to say … come sit by me.”

Hartle agreed about the bond between the women being the foundation of the story. She credited director Rarick with being able to bring that depth of character to the fore.

“The amount of detail Tim Rarick layers into the work, from character development to stage business, makes the experience so rich,” Hartle said.

“And, of course, the camaraderie of the women who are working on this play — if the audience has as much fun watching it as we’re having creating it, they’re in for a good time,” she added.

Capturing all of the women’s stories was important to Rarick.

“Our main goal, from day one, was to see this play as a story of six women, all of whom have arrived at a time and place in their lives where they are forced to come to grips with change,” the director said.

“We began exploring the interior lives of these ladies to be clear about what they wanted and what stood in their way in trying to achieve their goals,” he said.

Adding yet even more to the richness built in to the play, costumer Val Johnson said she is certainly having fun creating her part of the piece. Considering that the play takes place entirely in a 1980s beauty parlor in fictional small-town Louisiana, it allows for some colorful, wacky clothes and big hair onstage.

“The costume design was influenced to some degree by the 1989 movie, and from the memory of photos I received at that time of southern family members,” Johnson said.

Johnson said she thought about what she was doing and wearing in the ’80s and also considered the seasons of the play and the attitudes of the characters.

“Clairee is sophisticated as depicted by her St. John knit pantsuit,” Johnson said.

“Ouiser makes her own fashion rules and Truvy covets shoes,” she added.

The overall design, including the color palette, is a general nod to the fashion of the MTV decade, but was also gleaned from what was available in local thrift stores and vintage items from personal closets, including a pair of jeans worn by the mom of one of the actors.

Johnson, who has costumed a long list of shows at several of the area theaters, said she had fun dressing her “Magnificent Magnolias.”

“This one really was a joy to costume,” Johnson said. “It will stay with me.”

Hartle said the play has so much heart, it makes her want to go down to Louisiana and get her hair done at Truvy’s.

“Truvy says it best,” Hartle said, ‘Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.’”

The cast features Deana Duncan, Eleanor Fye, Elizabeth Grant, Dana Linn, Hartle and Bloom. The rest of the production team includes Taylor Raymond and Rarick, scenic design; Larry Woolworth, set dressing and props; and Ann Deacon, lighting design. Leah Green is the show’s stage manager.

The play runs at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturdays, and at 2 p.m. Sundays through Saturday, Feb. 25.

Tickets range from $12 to $16 and are available at the box office at 221-8268 or 800-638-7631. Additional information may be found online at www.WICAonline.com.