The world is a shockingly small place; just being in it will inevitably, repeatedly, and involuntarily bring you face to face with people you’d rather not meet more than once. In the case of Linda Griffiths’ new play Heaven Above Heaven Below, the wedding of a mutual friend reunites two nameless characters, He and She, twenty years after a short-lived fling resulted in She getting an abortion (which Griffiths detailed in her 1991 hit The Darling Family, to which this is the real-time sequel). The premise is enough to make anyone swear off large gatherings with undisclosed guest lists.

But He and She soon find themselves in another, more comfortable small place—her hotel room. They’re drawn to one another despite the awkward circumstances, probably because of the same attraction that got them together in the first place. But now they meet with much heavier baggage in tow. In addition to the will-they-won’t-they tension, heightened by the two characters’ decreasing sobriety (and an increasingly soft-looking bed, part of Kimberly Purtell’s IKEA-esque boutique-hotel set), there’s also two decades’ worth of catching up to do. She (played by Griffiths), a former free spirit and aspiring journalist, is now a teacher with a long-term boyfriend, but she never became a mother. He (Layne Coleman) has shed his punk-rock past for the white-picket-fence dream. He has a younger wife and a curly-haired four-year-old son.

At first, the interpersonal dynamic is disappointingly one-dimensional. The two characters arrive already drunk on bad wine, and continue to imbibe by way of a stolen bottle from the wedding. Immediately there’s sexual tension, but little else. A stiffly overwritten script and highly calculated pregnant pauses (for lack of a better term) in the conversation make both Coleman and Griffiths ring entirely false.

But as soon as they break into the pot, the mini-bar alcohol, and other illicit substances, they relax enough to get to the good stuff—the things they’ve wanted to tell each other for the past 20 years. Without giving too much away, we can say this is a play about parenthood, fulfillment, dreams, growing old, and growing up. After a slow start, Heaven Above Heaven Below evolves into a complex discussion between a man and a woman, a parent and a non-parent, about who got the shorter end of the deal. Though the writing isn’t consistently compelling enough for the show to become an instant classic like The Darling Family, it does have a timeless quality. We get the sense that both these characters are right, and there’s something impressive about the way they volley their positions back and forth. The play also has a timely advantage: it’s about a woman who refuses to be defined by her choice not to have children, and it comes at a time when more and more people are choosing a childless life.

Coleman is impressive as He, who is alternately sheepish, brazen, and heartfelt as the night unfolds. He even outshines Griffiths herself, who seems to inhabit the script instead of the character. Even so, they make up a three-person dream team with director Karen Hines. Together, they turn what could have been an emotionally painful experience in an uncomfortably small space (the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace isn’t exactly roomy) into one of peace and reconciliation.

What else is happening:

Today In Theatre at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace