When the patriarch goes missing and the family is called together after years apart, each character, in turn, spills a lifetime of secrets and resentment.

The dark, yet comedic drama by Tracy Letts, played on Tuesday and Wednesday nights at Wharton Center’s Cobb Great Hall.

Bay City resident Pege Slocum said the play’s realism is what made it so appealing.

“It was a great play,” she said. “It was a lot of laughs, but everyone in the theater had parts that hit home. All families are dysfunctional, but in a loving way.”

Theater professor Rob Roznowski agreed the family drama is what makes the play so relevant to audience members.

“I think it makes (viewers) feel better about their families, and I think they do find, even in all the outrageous situations that happen, a lot of identification in that too,” he said.

The play starred Academy Award winner Estelle Parsons as the matriarchand featured a cast of 12 others. In such a character-driven production, Lansing resident Doak Bloss said the cast’s delivery of lines and strength of acting enhanced the show.

“It’s very musical,” he said. “You get a sense of a language (and) it doesn’t seem like they’re reading lines — they’re just in the moment.”

In addition to their abilities onstage, Sandy Thomley, the senior production manager at Wharton Center, said the cast was easy to collaborate with backstage.

“They’re a fabulous group, marvelously professional,” she said. “(They’re) good people to work with.”

The play, which is set in Osage County, Okla., particularly hits home with Midwest viewers, Bloss said.

“It feels like everyone is running away from something, and I think it’s a very Midwest reality,” he said, “whether it’s religion, drugs (or) depression.”

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Play, the play first was produced by the Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2007 in Chicago.

The play has also had productions in New York City and London before the traveling cast, directed by Anna D. Shapiro, began touring about seven months ago, bringing the story of one family’s disintegration to viewers across the country.

In addition to seeing Tuesday night’s show, Roznowski said he has seen the play in New York City and teaches it in his class.

“I think the exploration of the family dynamics goes into such detail,” he said. “It goes deeper and affects you more than some of the touring musicals that come through. It’s a different evening in theater.”

Howell resident Bruce Michel said he also saw the show in New York City, and when he heard it was playing at Wharton Center, he had to come again.

“It’s just so real,” he said. “It’s a really nice slice of life. The good stuff or the bad stuff — maybe a lesson or two about how to deal with it.”