I don't know about SDL. I mean, I know about it, but I've never tried it. I installed it once a while ago, but never got to do something with it, because something didn't work for me and I gave up, then I've found an OpenGL library. I am not sure if this is what you want, but you can use OpenGL to draw 2D graphics too.

I am using an OpenGL library from:
http://graphcomp.com/opengl

And the coolest thing about it is that I am using a regular OpenGL C++ book to learn it. I am just substituting C++ specifics for perl equivalent commands.
The book, that I am using is OpenGL SuperBible :).
I don't see any speed difference in comparison to C++, even some examples are a few frames per second quicker, then C++.