Laughter's in the timing as a friendship evolves

The clever set (by Jorge Cousineau) is a gigantic old-fashioned composition book, with the play's title,

The Four of Us

, and the playwright's name, Itamar Moses, scrawled on its cover. Each page holds the setting for a scene; a stagehand comes out and turns the pages. This turns out to be more significant that we know: 1812 Production's East Coast premiere is not only funny and moving, it's surprising.

Moses is a young playwright who already has established a reputation as a smarty-pants with Outrage and Bach at Leipzig. But although The Four of Us has its slyness, it's not a play about ideas; mostly it's about friendship. Benjamin (Jeb Kreager) and David (Matt Pfeiffer) met when they were boys together at music camp. We watch 10 years pass - although not chronologically - and we get to know them as they are getting to know each other.

Ben, the novelist, seems independent of mind and emotions: disengaged, occasionally puritanical, and inclined to lecture. Dave, the playwright, is needy and interesting and endlessly self-analytical. They talk about girls, about sex, about music, and about their careers. That they sometimes lose touch with each other over the years allows for some exposition which seems clunky, but that clunkiness, too, turns out to be purposeful.

Scene One begins after a celebratory lunch: Benjamin's first novel has been accepted for publication and movie rights, and there is an astronomical amount of money involved. Later we watch him confidently field questions from the audience during an endless book tour.

David's play wins some feeble prize in Indiana and, after a disastrous production, we watch him rant at the audience and the critics.

Kreager creates a Benjamin who is nearly unblinking in his stolid calm - broken once in a while by an irresistible smile; his sex scene with a huge teddy bear is both unnerving and hilarious. Pfeiffer's David is so natural, so lovably talkative that we feel always on his side, even when he's wrong; his architectural riff is a tough monologue pulled off handsomely.

Comedy is, famously, all in the timing. Pete Pryor, as an actor, is known for his impeccable comic timing, and that long-crafted instinct serves him - and the script, and us - very well in directing The Four of Us.

Written by Itamar Moses. Directed by Pete Pryor. Sets, sound and video by Jorge Cousineau, costumes by Charlotte Cloe Fox Wind, props by Nick Westervelt, lighting by Paul Peyton Moffitt. Presented by 1812 Productions

Cast: Matt Pfeiffer (David); Jeb Kreager (Benjamin)

Playing at St. Stephen's Theatre (10th and Ludlow Streets) Through June 17. Tickets: $10 to $32. Information: 215-592-9560 or www.1812productions.org.

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