Playwright's 'Maternal Instinct' isn't strong

The best-drawn character in Monica Bauer's play ''The Maternal Instinct" isn't maternal at all. He's a socially awkward academic named Fred who somehow happens to be the most interesting person onstage, second only to a supporting character who utters but one word, ''Ouch." That doesn't bode well for the maternal part of ''The Maternal Instinct." While there are many likable things about Bauer's play, until she fortifies her two main characters the play will remain only moderately interesting. And fairly rudderless.

At first, ''The Maternal Instinct" concerns itself with the divergent desires of a married lesbian couple. Sarah wants a baby. Lillian does not. Advising them, for better or for worse, are Lillian's older sister, Emma, and Lillian's best friend and colleague, Fred. As it progresses, the play has a periodic identity crisis in determining whether it is a comedy with edge or a drama with comic relief.

Lillian, played by Karen Woodward Massey, is a successful biochemistry professor, seemingly content with her relationship with Sarah and content with her career trajectory. Massey is a kooky Lillian when a drier one would be more appropriate. Her phenomenally expressive face works against her in this regard. Her Lillian borders on silly, so much so that her anguish is a hard sell.

Alisha Jansky is the long-suffering Sarah, unless she's the manipulative Sarah, or the sensitive Sarah. You get the point. Rena Baskin makes a little too much out of her superior yet wholly supportive sibling role. Elise Manning is terrific as Terry, the homeless woman who can utter only one word, but the ongoing value of her character is questionable. Were Bauer to buck up and force Lillian and Sarah to talk -- and respond -- to one another, some of the nebulous discoveries that Terry prompts in the other three characters could be replaced by meatier dialogue.

And then there's Stephen Cooper, breaking through the dramatic static with a refreshing, earnest portrayal of Fred. Fred unintentionally becomes the play's protagonist because Cooper's portrayal is so natural and so engaging, even as he navigates some of Bauer's abrupt dialogue. He captures Fred's conflicts with ease, demonstrating Fred's superior intellect in the academic world alongside his naive problem-solving in the social world. His character should have a structural parallel to Lillian, but he doesn't.

There are enough interesting yet underdeveloped elements in this play to fill a third act. Lillian's research has isolated the maternal instinct, and oh yes, she's an alcoholic who competes with her sister, battles sexism in her field, and so on and so on. Right now, it all hits the stage as a poorly arranged buffet of back story.

Loann West's set splits its attention between Sarah and Lillian's all-tapestried-out home and a park bench in the Boston Public Garden. Lighting designer P.J. Strachman delicately deposits pools of illumination upon the action. There's nothing particularly Boston-ish about ''The Maternal Instinct" other than the script's ability to refer to Sarah and Lillian as married. Not a Boston accent to be had, not a particular college to be named, even though Lillian is clearly employed by one.

Bauer's lack of focus hinders the script from latching onto a larger message. The playwright has a lot to say and would do better to slow down the play's progression to spend more time with her intended main characters. Director Melissa J. Wentworth knits the collection of portrayals together rather deftly, but the playwright's instincts, in their current form, remain off target.