Even when at their best, all families can still be difficult to be around and to be a part of. At the heart of each family is the struggle to understand each other and to love each other anyway; sometimes it's possible, and sometimes it's not. Meanwhile everyday events, large and small, continually fray the cords that hold things together. Ogunquit playwright David Mauriello beautifully explores this territory in "A Passage of Time," at the Players' Ring in Portsmouth through March 13.

Mike (Andre Cuda) and Joey (Mickey Blanchette), two men in love and with a dream, decide to buy an old Victorian house in Maine-they want to stop working at careers where they're miserable, they want to stop hiding and just be themselves. With their dog Jason, whom Mike could and does risk his life for, they're very much a family unit.

The deal is queered (pun intended) when Joey's family moves in. Josephine (Susan Turner), Joey's mom, has a way of involving herself where she's not wanted and has something of a past that's also getting in the way. Ray (Thorpe Feidt), Joey's dad, simply never liked Joey. The two of them in a room together are as combustible as flint against steel. And Joey's Aunt Rose (Anne Rehner) is so senile that she can't remember where she lives, why the paperboy she knew in the city doesn't come to the country, or whether or not Mike has ever met her mother. Far from living the carefree life they envisioned, at Joey's insistence, the two don't discuss the true nature of their relationship with Joey's family, and now the constraints they used to face only at work are right there with them at the breakfast table every morning. Over the course of time, Joey's parents wrestle with the decision of whether to put Aunt Rose in a home, against Mike's wishes, and the entire family is put to the test.

Anne Rehner as Aunt Rose gives a performance so fraught with consistent subtleties that I couldn't tear my eyes off her for fear of missing a single moment. Thorpe Feidt and Susan Turner bicker and care for each other believably and deliciously in the way of long-married couples; Turner has a tear-jerker of a moment trying to convey to her husband of many years that she does, in fact, love him, and always has.

Blanchette and Cuda have the difficult challenge of steering this multilayered story. They throw themselves into the task valiantly and make solid efforts to connect with the other actors as well as each other onstage. However, at every moment, Cuda is stiff and self-conscious; there was never a moment when he was able to let go of himself and find Mike. Blanchette also seems uncomfortable, but makes it work more believably; the scenes he has arguing with Feidt ring especially true.

Director Richard DiMario accents the awkwardness of confrontation and change and does a wonderful job. He and Mauriello have paired up on many occasions and understand how to find the nuances of each other's work. Doing double-duty as the set designer, DiMario did a fascinating job of creating a double set of a dining room and porch.

Hanging partial window frames and doorjambs, he's insinuated a wall that isn't there and an imaginary door the actors never fail to open and close, a suggestive metaphor for the play itself.

"A Passage of Time" runs through March 13 at the Player's Ring, 105 Marcy St. Portsmouth, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 general admission, $8 students and seniors. For reservations, call 603-436-8123.