The playwright has her hands full just laying out this complicated background — did I mention that Joe gets evasive when the boys start asking where their usually doting mother is? — and the transition from getting-to-know-you chatter to churning conflict is a little abrupt. Taylor’s long story of a breakdown in college leads to a searing attack on Kimber and her presumptions, just the first in a series of heated confrontations over racism in academia (and out of it) and the delicate matter of class.

Ms. Diamond, whose plays have been produced widely at regional theaters, has said in interviews that she set out to write a traditional, “well-made play,” the kind of sturdily constructed drama that was once a staple of the popular theater, exemplified on the higher-brow end of the scale by the works of, say, Lillian Hellman. In its depiction of dark secrets from the past coming home to roost, and neglectful fathers and needy sons, “Stick Fly” is treading well-worn territory, and you can usually spy the next surprise a few beats before it is sprung.

But Ms. Diamond alters the recipe by blending discussions of black American culture into the batter. As a result, “Stick Fly” sometimes feels like a Tyler Perry melodrama (sans Madea), as it might be revised by a professor of African-American studies specializing in the complex signifiers of class in black society. And like the writing, which is often pointed and funny but sometimes sitcommy and slack, the acting ranges from superficial to richly felt.

Ms. Thoms, in the role of the permanently inflamed Taylor, tends to strike her character’s emotional notes head-on, allowing little room for nuance that might make her flare-ups more natural. As Kent, running interference between Taylor and Kimber as he tries to defend himself against his father’s casual slights, Mr. Hill is flat and mechanical.

Mr. Phifer brings a smooth magnetism to the cocky Flip that suits the character as sleekly as the costume designer Reggie Ray’s natty summer attire, while Mr. Santiago-Hudson, a veteran of August Wilson’s plays, gives an intermittently stilted performance as Joe, although he slides out his dismissive asides to fine effect.