On Theater:

Comedy and tragedy, it is said, are two sides of the same coin, a coin that playwright Julie Marie Myatt flips frequently and with startling abandon in her new play, “The Happy Ones,” currently receiving its world premiere at South Coast Repertory.

When a horrific accident robs him of his family, Garden Grove appliance store owner Walter Wells embarks on a torturous uphill struggle to regain his sense of perspective (yes, Myatt has set her story in Orange County, circa 1975).

This is Myatt’s second play to be produced at South Coast Repertory, the first being “My Wandering Boy” two years ago. While that one was enjoyable, “The Happy Ones” is unforgettable, a comedic drama calculated to alter your emotional equilibrium.

Martin Benson’s direction has touched, and torn at, the heart on many a previous occasion. Here the veteran craftsman brings Myatt’s poignant yet strangely comedic work to pulsating life with a cast of four performers whose work will remain with you long after you leave the theater.

Walter — an extraordinary performance by Raphael Sbarge — is shattered by the deaths of his wife and two children, killed by a young Vietnamese man with limited driving experience going the wrong way on a freeway.

Myatt’s play focuses on his road to recovery from that consuming grief, a winding and nearly unnavigable road.

This process is abetted (or, more accurately, hindered) by a pair of well-meaning friends, Gary (Geoffrey Lower), a hard-drinking minister, and his party-hearty girlfriend Mary-Ellen (Nike Doukas), who endeavor to quicken their friend’s grief-shedding pace.

Ironically, the largest share of comfort comes from Bao (Greg Watanabe), the Vietnamese man responsible for the tragedy, who attaches himself to a reluctant Walter as a virtual servant in an awkward attempt to make amends.

It turns out that these two men have more in common than Walter realizes. Sbarge runs the emotional gamut with soul-chilling alacrity in an aching portrayal of abject agony, emphatically rejecting attempts at cheerful conviviality.

His frustration is magnified by a continually ringing work phone and a young prankster inquiring about “Prince Albert in a can.”

Lower’s clerical character is ill-suited for his profession, and the actor underscores this aspect skillfully with an air of free-spirited commitment avoidance. Doukas, a familiar face on the repertory stage, enriches her party girl character with a sense of underlying panic about her age and desirability (though this hardly would be an issue to a casual observer).

The balance wheel in this dramatic comedy is Watanabe’s stony-faced, underplayed Bao, a painfully contrite individual who succeeds far more than the others at restoring Walter to meaningful life. He also has a surprising, yet informative, moment with Doukas which exposes the playwright’s sly hand at work. Played against the backdrop of Ralph Funicello’s middle-class 1970s living room setting, bolstered by occasional scenic elements, “The Happy Ones” is a bountiful repast for the heart and soul, a richly intermingled blend of comedy and drama and a most impressive world premiere. The show runs until Sunday.

IF YOU GO:

WHAT: “The Happy Ones”

WHERE: South Coast Repertory, Julianne Argyros Stage, 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Tuesdays through Fridays at 7:45 p.m., Saturdays & Sundays at 2 & 7:45 until Oct. 18

COST: $20-$65

CALL: (714) 708-5555

TOM TITUS reviews local theater for the Daily Pilot.