Some plays hit you in waves. There’s an impact when the curtain comes down, and you think, “Hey, good.” Five minutes later, you can’t let a scene, a line, a character go. Five minutes later, same thing. And on and on for hours and days.

That’s what “Molly Sweeney” does. The play opened at Live Theatre Workshop on Saturday.

It’s rich, it’s layered, and it won’t let you be.

You can thank Brian Friel for that — the Irish playwright infuses poetry and meaning into every word.

But you can also thank the LTW production, which took a difficult piece and made it moving and accessible.

Here’s the breakdown:

The conceit

“Molly Sweeney” is told through three characters who speak directly to the audience, but never to each other. The style underscores the profound isolation that permeates the play.

Who’s who

Molly has been blind almost since birth. Her world of touch, smell and hearing is a rich one. Her new husband, Frank, is an autodidactic man who inhales knowledge, but never understanding. He is convinced that surgery will restore Molly’s eyesight. Throughout Frank’s life, he has gone from obsession to obsession — Iranian goats, bees, whales. When his obsessions disappoint him — and they often do — he moves on to another one rather than question why. Molly, in a move to please her husband, agrees to the surgery.

The man tapped to restore her sight is a once-promising eye surgeon, Mr. Rice — booze and a wife who left him for a colleague drove him to this small Irish town. His promise — and his spirit — have been consumed by the alcohol and bitterness.

The action

Molly has the surgery. And it works. But as each character delivers a monologue, we discover that a successful surgery does not equal a fuller life. “Seeing is not understanding” is a phrase that comes up often. These are characters who understand little — Molly had a deep understanding as a blind woman; as one with sight, confusion is her constant companion. The doctor, desperate to redeem his reputation, is not one given to insight, and Frank is a man who seems incapable of any kind of reflection.

The performances

The cast of this well-directed (by Pat Timm) and fast-moving play is led by Carley Elizabeth Preston, who gives her Molly a luminousness and a deep knowing that brings the character to vivid life. Preston’s journey from a blind woman with a rich interior landscape and profound insight to a person steeped in confusion and unhappiness is full and beautifully nuanced. Steve Wood‘s Frank is frantic and shallow and perfect; you know who he is the minute he opens his mouth, and he never falters from that character. Jeff Scotland struggled a bit with his Mr. Rice; still, his pain and heartbreak, along with his hubris and ultimately compassion, were clear.

What resonates

Our responsibility to ourselves. Our responsibility to others. Listening. Comprehending. Thinking. Forgiveness. Compassion. Empathy. Poetry. The list goes on. …