The laudable mission of an ambitious young company called Triad Productions is “to reach a new generation of theatre-goer.” Their latest effort, through Jan. 23 in borrowed quarters at Diversionary Theatre’s University Heights headquarters, is Nicky Silver’s THE MAIDEN’S PRAYER.

Silver is a good choice of author. He trolls the roiling waters of tentative relationships in the stormy seas between school and maturity, seeking buoyancy beneath the strut and bluster and he’s known for pulling together sly ironies and titillating behavior that amuse and simulate those who aspire to coolness.

But PRAYER may not be the best choice of a play. Sentimentality lurks behind every outrage and the characters remain strangers, people we hear anecdotes about but we never really get to meet.

The two guys have been friends since they met at age 6, and Paul, the lean, saturnine gay cruiser played by Nathan Caracter, has been in love a few minutes longer than that with Taylor, the vague, handsome bore assigned to Jason Perkins. It’s Taylor’s wedding day, back in the ‘burbs where they grew up, and Paul, aced out of the best-man job by a distant cousin of the bride, is catching a breath of fresh air when the bride’s sister bursts into his life, swigging from a champagne and bitching about how she saw Taylor first but her sister used to mutilate her dolls and so forth.

Eventually, the wedding couple come (separately) looking for the two fugitives and some things become clear. Bride Cynthia, for example, turns out to be a classic manipulator skilled at illusions of warmth and caring while her sister, Libby, is a wreck careening downhill fast. And Taylor seems a seeker after the holy grail of normalcy.

Later, back in the city (Manhattan, of course), Paul continues his life of baffled priapic excess with the new burden of Libby’s accelerating decline. Lots of rueful laughs and, still later, more of the same back with the young couple, she chafing in pregnancy and he suffocating her with excess solicitude.

Eventually, there’s a miscarriage and Cynthia doesn’t take it well. Taylor’s a mess too but Libby finds her level of relative content and Paul, whose problems interest nobody else, emerges as everybody’s rock. It’s a messy, barely plausible and mildly interesting mélange, but playwright Silver is more interested in the form than the content.

When last seen, Libby is pondering a marriage proposal from a older man who has been paying her for sex and Cynthia is leaving for an Italian fling with her pediatrician.

“Did you ever really love Taylor?” asks Libby.

“You know the answer to that,” says Cynthia. Clinch. Curtain.

To the credit of director Adam Parker, all these people remain interesting (well, maybe not Taylor) to the very end. But part of the reason is that Silver’s story makes them seem worth knowing better. But Parker can’t pull that off. Silver hasn’t written enough play.

Rhianna Basore effectively slouches and rants as Libby but sort of disappears when she’s not the featured victim. Samantha Ginn is canny in her slow revelation of Cynthia’s true (I guess) self and handles the breakdowns with rough poignancy. Neither is as effective as Caracter, who pretty much carries the show on his back. Much diversion comes from James P. Darvas, who plays three of Paul’s tricks. One of the three – a flighty sales associate in the crystal department at Bloomingdale’s – eventually dominates, since Silver obviously adores writing prancing-princess shtick. Certainly Darvas has a ball delivering it.

It’s a very solid decor for Triad, with Jocelyn Parenteau finding ways to make both a suburban backyard and an all-purpose city pad coexist comfortably on the Diversionary stage. Josh Hyatt’s costumes are always right and Austin Meyer is only a bit too ambitious with the lighting.

Younger audiences? Sure. Why not? What do I know?

Well, I know this. If a new generation of theatre-goers likes this sort of stuff, there’s plenty of it available.

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