In addition to entertaining audiences, thoughtful works of stage and screen usually have something to say about the human condition. It's fitting, then, that Blackfriars' current show, "According to Goldman" - a play that's all about movies and the act of writing them - has quite a lot to say about people and how we relate, or fail to relate, to one another. The "Goldman" in the title is Academy Award-winning screenwriter William Goldman, specifically his maxim that nobody knows anything about anybody else. That's the underlying message of the play, which on the surface is about what makes a good script, but on a deeper level explores how people can get tangled in each others' lives, but still live solitary, nearly desperate existences.

Gavin Miller (Peter Doyle) is a writer who had some Hollywood success a few decades ago with schlocky family movies, but he hasn't sold a script in some time. While his career has cooled, his ambition has not. After a move to the mid-West to help take care of his wife's aging parents, Gavin has begrudgingly started teaching screenwriting at a local college. He's actually a fantastic professor, but appears to be blind to his strengths, eager to get back into the movie-business game. He even goes so far as to seriously entertain the idea of writing a computer-animated musical remake of the Anne Frank story in which the title subject survives (it's a kid's movie, after all).

Meanwhile, Gavin's wife, Melanie (Vicki Casarett), is thankful to be retired and out of the LA rat race. She's thrilled to have time to garden, and eager to make friends with the neighbors. But she's lonely, telling everyone but her husband that she feels the two of them drifting apart, and clearly regretting not starting a family of her own. Lastly there's Jeremiah (Christian Palmer), an odd, shy movie fan who pleads to join Gavin's screenwriting class, eager to create a modern version of the classic Hollywood pictures that starred his idol, Fred Astaire. But beneath Jeremiah's awkward veneer lies something far more dangerous that he tries to keep covered, but that lies seething, barely contained, and about to bubble to the surface.

The set is modest by Blackfriars standards, but it works well with director David Runzo's brisk, efficient staging. The stage is divided into four mini-sets - Gavin's classroom, Jeremiah's bedroom, Melanie's garden, and the Miller home - so that the action continues almost seamlessly no matter which character is taking over. Often the actors switch scenes by suddenly engaging with another character; sometimes the scenes change with the characters talking over one another. That's a smart and deliberate storytelling device, given the subtext of the play.

And man, is this play loaded with subtext. The whole thing is meta: layers on top of layers on top of layers, even more of them emerging when you look at it hindsight. Having a college professor lecturing the audience about what makes a good story is dangerous if the writer can't live up to his own advice, but Bruce Graham's funny, insightful script exceeds expectations. It's tempting to say that the second half includes some wild twists and character changes, but in actuality, Graham subtly telegraphs almost every plot development fairly early on. He also stuffs the script with some very funny jokes, many steeped in pop culture, courtesy of Gavin, a smart-ass who knows he's smart and thus rides the line between charming and smug.

That Gavin is so likable speaks highly of actor Peter Doyle, who balances Gavin's many faults - he's a bit of a diva, frankly , and out of touch with just about everything - with a very real humanity. That's the best way I can describe Doyle's performance: it felt real. He slips so completely into his character that it's difficult to believe he's not a washed-up screenwriter desperate to get back into the big leagues. It's very impressive work.

Similarly impressive is Vicki Cassaret as Melanie, a more low-key, somber role, although her character still gets in a couple of sharp lines. Melanie spends most of the play watching the events unfold around her, unable or unwilling to really get involved and have her say. Cassaret does a fantastic job conveying her feeling of powerlessness but not coming off like a victim. And when she finally does speak her piece, she's quite powerful.

The final actor, Christian Palmer, has perhaps the most difficult role in Jeremiah, a character who can very easily fall into caricature. Jeremiah comes from a strict religious background, was home-schooled for most of his life, and has practically nonexistent social skills. We've all met those types of people, and Palmer is totally believable in the role. However, Jeremiah offers up a line about the difference between Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, saying that with Kelly, you could always see the rehearsal in everything he did; with Astaire, it was like he was born to move that way. It's the same with Palmer and his cast mates: while Cassaret and Doyle appear nearly effortless in their roles, you can see the work Palmer puts into Jeremiah. But he's very young (still in high school), and has a great deal of talent. The ease of performance will come with time.

"According to Goldman"

Through November 21

Blackfriars Theatre, 795 E Main St.

$15-$27 | 454-1260, blackfriars.org