Ding Ding Ding!

With [Dusk Rings a Bell], playwright Stephen Belber (Tape, Match) has crafted a funny, poignant, heartbreaking play about second chances and redemption. Elevated to an almost unbearably high level by the performances of Kate Walsh and Paul Sparks, the production at [Atlantic Stage 2](http://www.atlantictheater.org/) is the first must-see of the summer.

The hyper-articulate Molly (Walsh), outwardly chipper as she fights off loneliness at her job for CNN, returns to the summer home her parents rented 24 years before to retrieve a letter she wrote at 14 to herself to read at 39, if she ever found herself in need of a “treasure.” And though she never explicitly says so (Molly’s articulateness dries up when it comes to real emotions), Molly is definitely in need of a treasure. So off she drives one winter Saturday down to Maryland, where she happily breaks in and finds her note. Unfortunately, she’s terrible at breaking and entering, and the house’s caretaker, Ray (Sparks), catches her. They banter edgily back and forth, until Molly suddenly recognizes Ray from the summer after her note: They had shared a passionate three-hour long kiss on a lifeguard stand, when Molly had conquered a stuttering problem and Ray wanted to be a heart surgeon. It’s a small step from reminiscing about their adolescent kiss—which had a powerful effect on them both—to having coffee together at Denny’s, where Ray reveals what he was doing while Molly was getting married and divorced and working at CNN: He spent most of his twenties in prison. After that confession, Dusk Rings a Bell subtly shifts from a bittersweet comedy to a melancholy examination of the failure of second chances, and our inability to forgive ourselves.

Cheerful to the point of mania, Walsh’s Molly proves to be an auspicious return to the stage after Walsh found fame on TV’s Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. There’s not a single misstep in either her or Sparks’ performances; Walsh lets Molly be a kind, considerate woman who nonetheless has some severe blindspots. And Sparks is riveting as Ray, a soft-spoken, slyly funny thirtysomething who is gradually coming to terms with his painful past. He understands why he may never be happy again, and he’s beginning to accept it, and in Sparks’ hands it’s heartbreaking. And while we root for Molly and Ray to find a modicum of happiness together, Belber is ruthlessly realistic when it comes to their relationship.

Wittily and bravely directed by Sam Gold, who trusts in the material and the actors enough to allow them to remain still for long stretches of dialogue, the play’s single flaw is the oddly redundant final scene, with the teenaged Molly and Ray on the lifeguard stand. We’ve already heard their conversation in their recollections of that day, and the flashback mitigates the powerful penultimate scene. But ignoring that mistaken choice, Dusk Rings a Bell is powerful stuff. And let’s hope that Walsh returns to the stage again and again and again.

[Dusk Rings a Bell]

Through June 26, [Atlantic Stage Two], 330 W. 16th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-279-4200; $50.