Stories are based on conflict, my teachers said. But one finally put it better by replacing the C-word with "negotiation." "Conflict" implies emotional and physical violence, winners and losers, good guys and bad guys, he said, which simplify and falsify life's experiences.

Prayers of Sherkin, by Irish playwright Sebastian Barry (The Steward of Christendom), proves the point splendidly. Call it haunting, call it poetic—the play avoids typical C-word storytelling to reveal well-meaning people facing difficult choices and negotiating, with each other and within themselves, to craft solutions.

James F. Schlatter plays John Hawke, patriarch of an 1890s Protestant sect sequestered on tiny Sherkin Island, who makes candles and prays for God to "send us increase." Three families, led from industrial Manchester's evils decades ago by prophet or madman Matt Purdy (Stephen Patrick Smith), have dwindled to John's sister Hannah (Joanna Rotté), sister-in-law Sarah (Taylor Williams), son Jesse (Matthew Mykityshyn) and daughter Fanny (angelic Marcie Thurstlic).

We watch their daily lives—candle-making, stargazing, blanket-embroidering—in their charming simplicity for a good while, growing to admire this dedicated family and their respectful friends like ferryman Moore (Michael P. Toner), fisherman Eoghan (Shaun Malleck), shopkeeper Meg (Kristi A. Good) and her husband Stephen (Jonathon Reardon). Then Barry slips in what changes everything: Fanny meets lithographer Patrick (Jared Michael Delaney) on a rare shopping trip, and they connect instantly.

The sect's strict rules against marrying outsiders stymie their blossoming romance, so courtship proceeds tentatively; Fanny can only join Patrick if she leaves her family forever to re-enter "the mess of life."

Someone else's telling would make John or Purdy villains, or demonize the mainland townsfolk, but Barry encourages us to embrace all the characters and to feel Fanny's dilemma without judgment. Director James J. Christy's production emphasizes the play's grace and heart, with Nick Embree's welcoming wood-and-stone scenic design (abstract enough to romantically portray ferry trips to and from the island), Jerold Forsyth's candle-inspired lighting, Susan Schaeffer's detailed period costumes and John Stovicek's gentle original guitar underscoring.

"Ten years ago, I would have found this play boring," my wife admitted afterward, saying more about maturity and modern culture than about Prayers of Sherkin, which some spectators, denied familiar storytelling cliches, may reject when withdrawal pangs start. Fanny Hawke bravely goes "like a dreamer to wake in a new world," and in its deceptively simple way, Barry's lovely play challenges us to take the same journey.