We Had a World, Huntington Theatre, Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, through March 15. 617-266-0800 or huntingtontheatre.org

Is a play always personal for its author? In a recent chat between Huntington artistic director Loretta Greco and playwright Josh Harmon, the dramatist observed, "Not every play is a personal excavation of something—but since it comes from you, it will always be personal." In various ways, Harmon lived up to this comment in his earlier "Prayer for the French Republic" (also staged by Huntington).

Now Huntington is presenting the regional premiere of his latest and most personal play "We Had a World." Harmon has described this autobiographical portrait as an "honest version of a memory play." Under Keira Fromm's strong direction, this alternately serious and humorous play brings the world of Harmon's family—specifically his grandmother Renee, his mother Ellen and himself Joshua—to vivid life on the Wimberly Theatre stage at the Calderwood Pavillion.

As the play begins, strong-willed Renee urges Joshua to make his latest effort "as bitter and vitriolic as possible" and turn it into a kind of "Virginia Woolf?" Part 2 by way of "Medea." At times, the bitterness and vitriol become what the play describes as a 'Battle of the Titans' namely between Joshua's mother and grandmother.

In some ways, Joshua's challenge becomes tantamount to a Herculean labor as he tries to bring understanding between them even as he determines to find the truth of their conflict and their individual influences on him and his personal odyssey. In the process, the playwright makes both women as memorable and distinctive as his journey to understanding himself as well as his relationship to them.

That journey begins very early on as his culture—loving grandmother introduces him to artistic work that his mother considers inappropriate—for example the Kevin Costner film "Dances with Wolves" at age seven and the controversial Mapplethorpe art exhibit at age nine. Renee even has Joshua read the tough Greek classic "Medea" at age 10 and follow up actually seeing a production of the play starring Diana Rigg. Not surprisingly, Joshua suggests that his grandmother "changed my life."

By contrast, Ellen takes a more emotionally conflicted view of Renee. Revealing to Joshua that his grandmother is an alcoholic even as she admits to talking with her mother six times a day, she warns her son to never drink in front of her. Ellen's ongoing bitterness involves having to cope with Renee's parental failings—notably waiting for her no-show drunken mother while fellow classmates shared a school tea with their own mothers. She also speaks with deep resentment about a 2003 Rosh Hashanah blowout and a Passover disaster at which Ellen bothers to bring her own matzoh ball soup and Tupperware items only to take them away after cantankerous Renee actually hits her and inexcusably accuses Ellen of abuse.

Joshua, attempting to find common ground between them, continues to look for positive factors even as he candidly but kindly suggests that his own mother see a therapist and finds ways to counter his grandmother's more unpredictable statements.

The Huntington cast members capture all of the complexities informing the three characters. Amy Resnick finds all of Renee's indomitable spirit and convincingly moves from secure body language to a struggling gait as she reaches old age. At the same time, her ongoing warmth with Joshua as she influences him is fully arresting. Eva Kaminsky smartly handles the tricky role of Ellen, capturing her periodic outbursts with her mother and always catching her very real concern for Joshua. She reaches a fine moment of pathos as she confesses to experiencing a tortured existence for sixty years.

Will Conard has all of the appealing openness and unflagging optimism of Joshua (the play's persona for playwright Harmon). He artfully balances Joshua's occasional frustrations in trying to understand the conflict between his mother and grandmother with his sense of serenity in speaking about Nick, a psychiatrist who is bringing him happiness. Courtney O'Neill's scenic design easily finds the emotional expansiveness of the play in its variety of set pieces, particularly an elegant loveseat at stage right that the grandmother has kept all to herself.

At one moment of appreciation, grandmother Renee (whom Joshua affectionately calls Nana) expresses the feeling that wherever Joshua is, she just wants to say thanks. Audiences should embrace Harmon's wonderfully reflective play and Huntington's first-rate staging with equal gratitude.