Your character is who you are when no one is looking, yet your character isn’t derived from thin air. It’s gradually sculpted and formed by the people you know. Whether for good or the bad, your family and friends mold you into the person you will become. So how much can a neurotic best friend and an agoraphobic mother tell about a couple’s relationship? A whole lot, actually.

Kin, beautifully written by Bathsheba Doran and produced at Playwrights Horizons, follows the romance between a Columbia English professor (Kristen Bush) and an Irish personal trainer (Patch Darragh) through their kinships with their inner circles. Interestingly, the play is unfolded through the giant, white rectangle that acts as a frame (among other things), capturing important events in the character’s lives.

However, Doran’s protagonists Anna and Sean are rarely seen onstage together. Their exploits are mostly made known through vignettes told among family and friends. Sean’s mother, Linda, (Suzan Bertish) is deathly afraid of the outdoors, but normally chats with her brother about Sean’s life nowadays. Linda’s overwhelming fear detains her within the barriers of her own safe house, enabling her to follow her son in America. Phones calls and a slight crack of the window is all the outdoors she requires. The risk of being reminded what happened all those year’s ago is just not worth it.

Helena (a wonderfully funny Laura Heisler) is Anna’s best friend and a struggling actress, steals the spotlight by adding her comedic pattering and rants to the show. She is a fresh breath in Kin’s drama-filled plot. Conversations between her and Anna share the intimate details of the couple’s relationship with the audience. Yet, the most touching kinship is between Anna and her military father (Cotter Smith). After her mother’s death, their relationship also seemed to vanish with it. Finally realizing that his little girl is all grown-up, he’s determined to be the number one, or two, man in her life.

Kin mainly focuses on Anna and Sean’s relationships with their family and friends. Thus, we learn more about their character by taking a peek behind their closed door. Although each character never formally meets one another until the wedding, their problems are still able to travel across continents and affect each other’s lives. Overall, Director Sam Gold should receive accolades for this play. Every aspect from the characters to the background compliments each other well. As the show comes to a close, you’ll be leaving the Playwrights Horizons like you’re leaving your own family get-together.