Why was there the feeling of relief last weekend at the opening of the Guthrie Theater’s end-of-season production of "When We Are Married"? Mental exhaustion from the recent Kushner Celebration perhaps?

No, I think it was something else: The chance to see well-known Guthrie hands from the past and present glide with apparent effortlessness through an ensemble play. It was delicious pleasure in watching a platoon of first-rate talents take on character roles and crisply mine their parts without tripping on each others’ feet.

Never mind that there’s trifling little in the way of deep meaning to J.B. Priestley’s comedy about a trio of bourgeois Edwardian-era couples who are shocked out of their smug complacency by the news that their 25-year-old marriages weren’t legal. The scandal upends their relationships -- the hen-pecked become the hen-peckers and vice versa -- and when order is restored ... well, the play ends and everyone goes home happy.

The genius in Priestley’s play-writing craft is the canvas he creates for character acting in the grand tradition of British theater. First, there are the three couples -- all examples of that uneasy self-consciousness that sometimes afflicts people of working-class roots who succeed in life and feel compelled to adopt a “la-di-dah” attitude, as one of them unthinkingly expresses it to describe the fault of lesser people.

So there’s a self-important local councilman (Raye Birk), who overbearingly bores his long-suffering wife (Linda Kelsey). There’s a foggy-witted local alderman (Dennis Creaghan) who indulges in some hapless philandering while his wife (Helen Carey) flutters over the batty household servants. And there’s the mousey husband (Peter Michael Goetz) of the community’s leading battle ax (Patricia Conolly).

With the exception of Birk, who is hilariously and appropriately bombastic, the character portrayals of these spouses are beautifully concise, subtle and not overblown. So when Kelsey, suddenly rebellious, calls her husband stingy and boring, she gets a huge laugh by delivering the judgments in a calm and reasonable manner. And when Goetz, suddenly un-emasculated by his newfound single status, defies his wife’s imperious orders, he pauses to silently savor the moment and the audience roars with recognition.

There’s a delicate balance among the six actors portraying these three couples, and it’s delightful to see them work off each other. But Priestley also sweetens the plot with a whole group of character parts -- a deliciously ditzy chamber maid (Maggie Chestovich) who gives new meaning to the word “alacrity’; a frumpy, eavesdropping housekeeper (Barbara Bryne); a blowsy ex-girlfriend (Sally Wingert); and a tipsy-though-perceptive photographer (Colin McPhillamy).

The play gives each of them a scene to savor. And, yes, it’s a bit mechanical and unrepentantly contrived. So what? It’s summer and the mood is light. And while the cast probably has centuries of combined experience in the theater, they’re light on their feet.

"When We Are Married" continues through Aug. 30. Tickets are $24 to $60. For more information, go here.