Processing words in an activist's kitchen

Getting inside the mind of a writer is not an easy task. Getting inside the mind of the wise and witty short story writer, poet, and social activist Grace Paley is even trickier. But the Underground Railway Theater's Debra Wise makes a brave attempt with "States of Grace," which is having its world premiere at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre through Feb. 10, although the atmosphere is more effective than the content.

Paley's writing casts a sharp eye on the quirky denizens of the Bronx neighborhood where she grew up. Across the street, downstairs, in the park, Paley saw a world teeming with characters that trudged through life with limited dreams but a lot of hope. Her stories in the collections "The Little Disturbances of Man, " "Enormous Changes at the Last Minute, " and "Later the Same Day " read like mini movies that capture the voices of characters rarely heard and find the meaningful in the mundane.

Set designer David Fichter's kitchen set creates the perfect tone for the play's conceit: an evening with the working writer. Grace sits at her typewriter in an orderly kitchen, struggling to get the words right, first for a poem about happiness, then for her stories. As Grace, Wise (who also wrote the script in collaboration with the company) balances the writer's frustration while also bringing to life Paley characters. These include Faith, who often narrates the stories with wry humor and compassion, and Zagrowsky, the old man who confronts his racism with an enormous love for his black grandson.

As Grace fights off exhaustion and frustration with her work, her muse speaks to her in the form of other characters and ideas from her stories. Fichter's beautifully realized puppets pop out of kitchen cabinets, up from a wastepaper basket and from inside a refrigerator. The relationship between Grace's memories and her imagination are made crystal clear with these puppets, which are rendered with such artistry it's easy to see a commanding, if ailing father figure even though this puppet is less than 3 feet tall.

In the case of Jack, the character who represents the man she shares her bed with, actor Owen Doyle provides the head and hands, but puppets sometimes give him a truncated body. The notion of the miniature bed folding out of the fridge becomes a slyly funny comment on exactly what his position in her life might be.

Wise has woven chunks of Paley's stories into the script, and although supertitles helpfully label the stories we're hearing at any given moment, the links between the stories and Grace's situation at the table are tenuous at best. It's wonderful to hear "Conversations With My Father" and "The Immigrant Story," but director Greg Smucker hasn't figured out how to give "States of Grace" the dramatic urgency it needs to succeed as a play.

Wise does attempt to create a dramatic arc by introducing the next generation of writer s ( as represented by the talented Khalil Flemming and his desire to learn the craft from her ) . The scene neatly works in Paley's efforts as a writing teacher, but doesn't add to our understanding of Paley's stories or the creator as a person. The subtitle of "States of Grace" is "a play inspired by the stories of Grace Paley," but Wise overreaches in her effort to pay tribute both to Paley and her trenchant vision.