YOUNGSTOWN – The old saying goes good fences make good neighbors.

There are no fences and no boundaries separating the Gibson sisters in Paul Osborn’s “Morning’s at Seven,” which opened Friday at Hopewell Theatre.

Never married Aronetta (Lynn Nelson Rafferty) lives with her sister Cora (Gerri Jenkins) and Cora’s husband Theodore (Craig Petrie). Another sister, Ida (Amy-Anne Kibler) is right next door with her husband Carl (Eric Kibler) and their approaching middle-aged son Homer (Frank Martin).

The fourth sister, Esther (Molly Galano), is only a couple blocks away with her husband David (Bill Rees), who thinks his wife’s family are morons and forbids her to see them. Her sneaking out to catch up with her family leads to one of several intertwined conflicts in a melancholy-infused comedy.

Osborn’s play made its debut in the 1930s, but many of its issues are timeless. All of the characters are aware of the passage of time and contemplating how they want to spend what is left of their lives.

Carl is wrestling with the same question David Byne would ask nearly 50 years later with Talking Heads — “Well, how did I get here?” — and pondering what his life would have been if he followed a different path. Cora is tired of sharing her life — and her husband — with her sister and looking for a way for Theodore and her to spend their final years alone. Esther is deciding whether she wants to continue to bend to David’s demands, while Homer hems and haws about cutting the apron strings with his parents and finally committing to his longtime fiancee Myrtle (Leslie Whetstine).

Director Jeanine Rees has assembled a talented cast and finds the right balance with the humor and pathos of the story. This is a true ensemble piece, and the staging gives each actor multiple moments to drive the action.

Petrie’s impeccable timing gets big laughs with his increasingly exasperated reactions to the folks around him. Whetstine is a high-strung delight as a character so desperate to please and trying not to do anything that might endanger the possibility of Homer finally committing to marriage.

The matter-of-fact manner Eric Kilbler brings to some of Carl’s choices adds to their comedic impact, but the audience also can feel the character’s inner torment in the way he plays those scenes.

The set design by Rosalyn Blystone and Regina Rees makes maximum use of the Hopewell stage. We only see the corners and backyard entryways of the neighboring houses, but the facades are rendered in exquisite detail. The theater unveiled new landscaping and a new ramp outside the theater before opening night, but the landscaping on stage was just as impressive.

The lighting design by Adam Dominick and particularly the sound design by Nick Mulichak also set the mood. I liked how the time of day was conveyed by the shift from the occasional bird chirping to the sound of crickets.

That attention to detail, evident in both the design elements and the performances, make “Morning’s at Seven” a sweet, pleasing opener to Hopewell’s 2024-25 season.