Ari Mintz

"I'm not someone who has difficulty communicating," declares Molly (Kate Walsh) at the beginning of Stephen Belber's modestly masterful play Dusk Rings a Bell. She's not kidding; throughout the next ninety minutes Molly, a bourgy P.R. flack for CNN in D.C., flies high-altitude linguistic loop the loops to tell the surprising story of her encounters with Ray (Paul Sparks) in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. As teens, the two shared an "indelible" and "innovative" make-out session on a lifeguard stand one late-summer eve, and never saw each other again—until Molly, on her 39th birthday, breaks into the summer beach house her parents used to rent, for reasons I won't spoil here.

Ray happens to be the caretaker for the house, and after catching Molly trespassing, the two suddenly recall their adolescent encounter. Over coffee, they catch up: Molly overcame a childhood battle with stuttering to become a big shot communications executive; Ray does landscaping and seems, at first glance, every bit the simple-minded blue collar townie. But like everything else in Belber's finely nuanced play, Molly's sophisticated loquaciousness masks a deeper mystery, and Ray's reticent facade soon implodes when he launches into a startlingly trenchant critique of CNN. Ray never went to college, because, as he finally reveals to Molly, he did 10 years in prison for his murky role in the murder of a gay college kid. Molly's struggle over whether to condemn or accept Ray, and his passion to prove that he's more than just an ex-con, form the crux of Belber's engrossing narrative.

Delicately directed by Sam Gold, who recently wowed us with his no-B.S. direction of Annie Baker's The Aliens, Dusk Rings a Bell unpacks the bittersweet story of Molly and Ray with a grace and humor that borders on perfection. Sparks is, as usual, absolutely enthralling as Ray; at turns scary and adorable, awkward and sexy, he mixes a half-dozen conflicting personality traits into a coherent, albeit eccentric, whole. Walsh, as Molly, is also pitch-perfect as the careerist publicist whose standard-issue phony smile is just a front for a wholly atypical sincerity. Time flies by as you watch these two spar and prod each other out of their respective comfort zones, and by the time their story reaches its elegant denouement, you'll realize you just experienced something rather rare.