In “Country of the Pointed Firs,” Pontine Theatre uses masks and puppets, and the conventions of Victorian toy theater, to set a whole village in motion, as seen distinctly from a woman’s point of view. Sarah Orne Jewett is both author and erstwhile subject in this performance based on her novel of the same name, as her text forms the script for Pontine’s original production.

Set a century ago, the play tells of the hardships, the loneliness of life and the frequent deaths in a fishing village on the Maine coast, where friendships were as precious as gold and an afternoon in another person’s company was something to be celebrated. She had decided to make an honest memoir of this dying way of life as a study of the effects that this kind of isolation and hardship could have on the people in these villages and wrote this piece in their honor.

M. Marguerite Mathews and Gregory Gathers present the characters in this village in fascinating ways. Mathews begins by narrating to the audience about Mrs. Todd, the woman who the writer lives with as she writes her book. A special friendship springs up between the two women as the narrator spends many an afternoon accompanying Mrs. Todd (played by Gathers in long skirt and mask) in her work as an apothecary—she’s quite busy, as doctors were rare in villages like these.

Eventually, however, this distracts the narrator from her writing, so she rents an abandoned schoolhouse. She receives a visit from Captain Littlepage (Gathers again) with whom she discusses the funeral of local man who has always been something of a mystery to her, as well as his adventures of the sea. During this time, she realizes how much she misses the fascinating time she spent with Mrs. Todd, and their relationship strengthens.

This sense of awakening echoes the South Berwick resident’s own life. She was published in “Atlantic Monthly” at the tender age of 19, and it was the editor of that magazine who encouraged her to publish her first book. She became acquainted with the Boston literary elite, including Annie Fields, with whom she had one of the most intimate and lasting relationships in her entire life.

The masks, which come out during several other sketches, help create a timeless feel for these stories rooted in a 19th century setting (another side of Gather’s talents).

In a small village such as this, the inhabitants’ dependence on each other is mighty and their days (especially winter) were long. They could be quiet, or grueling, filled with neighborly companionship or with feelings of isolation from the rest of the world.

When more than two people are required on stage to tell what has happened on the island, Gathers and Mathews bring out hand-held dolls to replicate other members of the village. Altogether, the puppetry, the masks, the changing costumes, and the music (traditionals such as “Wind in the Rigging” and “Steeple in the Common”) create an ethereal feeling, bringing us back a century to a time when we were more acutely aware that we were at the mercy of nature and each other, and well-told stories from someone else’s life helped us measure our own.

“Country of the Pointed Firs” will run through Feb. 7 at West End Studio Theater, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth. Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and  Sunday at 2 p.m. For reservations, call 603-436-6660.