Power outages seem to happen here during just about every tropical storm that hits. They are a primal reminder of just how reliant we are on electricity to connect to the outside world. During an outage, we feel trapped in our homes with whoever is stuck there with us. Or maybe we are sometimes just alone in the dark.

"Outage," a new play at The Actors’ Group written by Jan Shiarella McGrath, is set during an overnight blackout in 1982 at the home of gay couple Lily and Peg. Lily’s daughter, Jeanne, is getting married the next day and the women have just come home from the rehearsal dinner.

They are tense not only because their future son-in-law’s parents are traditional Jews who did not react well to the same-sex couple, but also because Lily has cancer. And she’s keeping the disease a secret from her daughter.

Lily’s ex-husband, Bill, comes by to drop Jeanne off and then the lights go out. In the darkness, tensions bubble to the surface. There’s Lily’s illness, and Bill may still be holding a torch for his ex-wife. Peg, sober for 20 years, may be hitting the bottle. Then in Act 2, Jeanne is forced to make a decision when Ari, her Jewish fiance, decides to be a surgeon in war-torn Lebanon.

"Outage" has the feel of a Woody Allen movie: borderline pretentious intellectuals sparring after being brought together by a family event. Four of the play’s five characters have "Ph.D." or "M.D." attached to their names — except for poor Peg, Lily’s other half, played with rough, almost blue-collar gusto by Lisa Barnes. This is a small college-town world where the inhabitants quote Wordsworth and Dickinson at the drop of a hat and turn their noses up at people who don’t.

The lithe Hoku Gilbert leaves an indelible impression as Lily. She could have turned in a one-note performance as a snotty scholar wallowing in self-pity due to her health problems, but Gilbert creates a well-rounded, emotional, funny and even sexual woman still trying to find her place in the world.

Non de Mello, as Bill, is jovial yet slightly uncomfortable as the lone male in a household of independent women. Therese Olival portrays Jeanne, the daughter who wants everyone to be happy, with a refreshing lack of angst and overdramatics. The role of Ari, Jeanne’s fiance, is small but Dezmond Gilla makes himself as ingratiating as possible.

The set is spare: a pseudo-Bohemian-style kitchen and living room designed by Andy Alvarado and Victoria Gail-White (who also directed the play) and decorated with art on the walls by island artist Sabra Rae Feldstein. (The works are available for sale.)

Like the stage setting, the play occasionally seems somewhat slight, with a too-casual attitude toward its conflicts, especially considering cancer and war in the Middle East are in the mix. But the actors shine brightly enough that the characters in "Outage" leave a lingering impression.