Annie Miesels astounds. It is her multifaceted interpretation of the flakey yet incredibly sharp Alice that brings a jaunty levity to this incredibly profound narrative. Jennifer Van Dyck, playing Diana, gives a performance both humorous and emotionally impactful.

Diana is acerbic and contrary, she hates kids, but she loves kids. She is turned on by the smell of paint. She has some very funny lines. We never really find her backstory. Alice is more openly endearing, finding joy as years progress in teaching middle schoolers, in her grandkids, and her daughter’s success, while Diana’s daughter is troubled, perhaps a victim of her mother’s inability to bond with other human beings.

In this relatable and warm WHAT production, the actresses and Walker make these characters two women you’re glad to know.

The acting is simply superb. Meisels and Van Dyck show their differences in every way: their physicality, their gestures, their voices, their expressions. They make the audience believe in their hesitation to embrace friendship and their tentative reliance on it.

Annie Meisels playing naïve housewife Alice and her artist and fierce single-mom neighbor, Diana, played by Jennifer Van Dyck, are powerhouses. Meisels is sweet in a floral dress while the harder-edged Van Dyck wears silk and denim. Each is enthralled and confused by the other, but the development of the characters and the plot is seamless and so real, it’s easy to become the proverbial fly on the wall and sit in rapt attention for the 90-minute (no intermission) show.