Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosensweig,” which opened the 39th season for the Portland Stage Company with purpose on Friday night, is a play that almost has too much in it.

Threads of social, historical, political, economic, religious, ethnic, gender, literary and other issues are woven through the 1992 play’s fabric. If all that seems daunting, the play’s generous strands of comedy and warm emotions are there to provide relief.

Wasserstein was exceptionally good at combining the serious and the silly in her writings throughout her all-too-brief career (she died at age 55). She used some of the basics of her own life — being single, Jewish, well-educated, cultured and a feminist — as well as the events of her time to create theater pieces in which likable characters, particularly female characters, try to make sense of their lives.

The author acknowledged a debt to Chekhov with this play, but her love of classic Broadway theater also comes through clearly here, under the direction of Chris Grabowski.

Though they enjoy many material comforts (the play takes place in an upscale London home), the sisters of this show long for “hope and rebirth” even as they fiercely defend themselves against criticisms of what they’ve accomplished so far. There’s a lot of give and take about whether their Jewish-American heritage is a help or a hindrance to them in a changing world, as well as debates about what they should be willing to sacrifice for emotional security.

Played by Amy McDonald, Sara, whose 54th birthday is the occasion for the gathering of her siblings and their friends, is smart and successful in the man’s world of international banking. She resists the advances of guest Mervyn, played by John Plumpis, a fast-talking furrier with a sensitive heart.

Sister Pfeni, a writer and self-styled “wandering Jew” played by D’Arcy Dersham, longs for the flamboyant Geoffrey, played by William Zielinski.

And Gorgeous, the seemingly least complicated sister, played by Carole Healey, wants to be respected for sticking closest to their mother’s ideal of the traditionally successful woman.

McDonald employed the tough, “hard woman” tone of the mover and shaker she was playing at Friday’s performance. When she softened a bit at the end, the contrast added to an appreciation of what had gone before.

Dersham inhabited her “eccentric” character more easily and offered a number of fine acting touches when not speaking. Her Pfeni seemed real in a way that her sisters sometimes did not.

Healey was a comedic hoot as the sweetheart who chases taste while always searching for just a “moment of pure, unadulterated happiness.”

Ron Botting and Michael Dix Thomas round out the male cast as quaint (each in his own way) Britishers who ultimately don’t quite fit with the Rosensweig clan.

Megan Dorn, as Sara’s college-age daughter, sums up the play’s most serious question about whether her family is destined to be made up of “people who will always be watching and never belong.”

Maybe, but they are fun to watch and think about in this impressive production of a very well-wrought play.

Steve Feeney is a freelance writer who lives in Portland.

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