A brilliant Fifth of July" at Bay Street Theatre"

There is an abundance of brilliance on stage at Bay Street Theatre in the current, inspired production of Lanford Wilson’s 1978 “Fifth of July,” the second play from Mr. Wilson’s pen but third chronological episode in his Talley family trilogy.

The first brilliance is in dynamic evidence even before the house lights go down and the first line of dialogue is spoken: Paul Gallo’s complex, embracing, detailed and moody set design tells the history of the Talley clan without words and then works as both a silent commentator on and facilitator of the fiery plot that unfolds.

The second is the multifaceted, driving direction by Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre co-founder Terry Kinney. The forward motion of the play never falters for a second, and its unspoken undercurrents, the action beneath the action, is palpably there every moment. It’s a masterpiece of digging into and exploring every facet of a playwright’s prose and purpose and form, and it’s downright dazzling.

And the third brilliance is the play itself, proof of Lanford Wilson’s place in theater literature as not a good but a great playwright, one who captures fascinating characters in full, exterior and interior length and depth, and moves them in an uninterrupted arc through constantly varying and revelatory relationships. Set just after the Vietnam War and its protests and terrible aftermaths, it just as well could be taking place today. It has that sort of universality at its core.

It’s a play with more than a heart. Through the angst and the anger, the revelations and retributions of the Talley family, a collective soul is gradually revealed, and it reaches its final, clear voice in the moving closing moments of the play.

There’s such a uniformity of brilliant acting in this production that separation seems a sin. But each character is so clearly defined by this outstanding cast, there is room for some individualizing.

Thanks to the playwright, Kally Duling’s first 15 minutes on stage as the young in age and spirit Shirley Talley mark her as a borderline crazy teenager, and her extended screeching cuts like a knife. But this is fleeting, and as the play deepens, so does she, until she becomes downright embraceable.

Danny Deferrari, likewise, seems like a terminally oddball, motormouthed rock musician in the early moments, but as time progresses his characterization of Weston Hurley, the important musical presence in the business of John and Gwen Landis, grows in stature and statement.

As the stolid in the present but wild in the past June Talley, Kellie Overbey is riveting and pivotal. It’s a quiet, absorbing, immensely satisfying performance.

David Wilson Barnes is a dynamic and driving presence as John Landis, the husband of Gwen Talley Landis, and his strength and impetuousness results in the most tragic and shocking event of the play.

As the wildly successful and wildly behaving Gwen Landis, Jennifer Mudge is a constantly sexy, overbearing yet lovable singer and tycoon who is still a complete Talley no matter how far from the nest she progresses.

Shane McRae, as Jed Jenkins, Kenneth Talley’s lover and a man who is transforming the Talley estate into a botanical showplace, conveys a quiet and enormously effective, anchoring strength in the swirling events of two days in July in Lebanon, Missouri.

Fulfilling and extending her incandescent, Tony winning portrayal of Linda Loman in the 1999 Broadway revival of “Death of a Salesman,” Elizabeth Franz gives a moving, quietly powerful portrait of Sally Talley Friedman, the present cornerstone of the Talley family, whose courtship and marriage with Matt Friedman is the subject of “Talley’s Folly,” Mr. Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winner, and the reason for the “Fifth of July” gathering of the Talleys.

With serene sturdiness and tenacity, she navigates the roiled waters of the meeting of the Talley clan, and makes of the navigation yet another spellbinding theatrical experience.

Anson Mount delivers a varied, nuanced and sensitive portrayal of the crippled war veteran Kenneth Talley Jr. A furiously conflicted and tortured soul, this character motivates and measures the events and the eventual maturation of the two-day holiday of the Talley family. And Mr. Mount conveys this with quiet and sustained control and power.

Davie Weiner’s sensitive lighting design enhances and empowers the production, and Sarah J. Holden’s costume design is at once arresting and daring, and thoroughly character revealing.

Lanford Wilson’s masterly “Fifth of July” could have no better showcase than the one it’s currently being given at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor. Don’t for heaven’s and your sake let it pass you by.

Peformances of “Fifth of July” are every night but Monday and in Wednesday and Saturday matinees through August 1. Visit baystreet.org or call 725-9500.