Memory plays are cool things, for they seem to dramatically represent the kind of stubborn, unwanted, way less than tidy, messy, uncontrollable, and persistent remembrances that frankly we all would like to forget if we could.

That could be said of Kenneth Lonergan’s “The Waverly Gallery,” a serious drama being performed at Weathervane Playhouse, a Knight Arts grantee, that tells the story as told from a grandson’s recollections of a two-year period in his grandmother Gladys’ life – with a parallel drawn between her livelihood (as an art dealer) and her business being shut down, to her degenerative senility in the years before her death.

As you might expect, he’s trying to sort it all out, make sense of it as it were, and get at the strong emotions that he felt (and indeed his mother and other people involved felt) as Gladys tumbles toward the end.

Dramatically, the point gets made as young Daniel (played with both touching humor and pathos by Brian O. Jackson) recalls Gladys’ repeated journeys day and night to his apartment door (she lived in the same building but on another side). As the play progresses, each journey she makes shows her understandably less cognizant of how she got there and why she came.

Brian O. Jackson as Daniel Reed and Harriet DeVeto as Gladys Green in “The Waverly Gallery.” Photo courtesy of Weathervane Playhouse

Harriet DeVeto, who plays this crucial role in the play, handles it all with all the emotional tools of a clever, extremely gifted actress. More of a shuffle here, a blurrier look on her face there, clutching at her robe one time, or a wild, lost look in the eye at another time – these kinds of things make the horror of what the character is going through (and what the grandson witnesses) all the more alarming. DeVeto is amazing in this role.

Harriet DeVeto as Gladys Green in “The Waverly Gallery.” Photo courtesy of Weathervane Playhouse

All the cast members in this production are incredibly strong in their performances. Ellen, Gladys’ daughter (played by Sue Jeromson) comes across cold and peevish at first, mostly because she is in denial of her mother’s state, but as we come to find out through the changes the actress shows us, she is angry that Gladys can’t control herself. She wants her mother strong, and she can become almost belligerent in insisting that she be so. She eventually loses it, though, near the end, and the deeply rooted love comes out as she and the grandson hug – as a kind of embrace and pact that they hope this never happens to them.

Sue Jeromson as Ellen Fine and Harriet DeVeto as Gladys Green in “The Waverly Gallery.” Photo courtesy of Weathervane Playhouse

As Daniel’s stepfather and Ellen’s second husband, Howard Fine (played by Scott Shriner) displays straightforward quiet strength. He is supportive to his family and kind to Gladys. His is a character removed from the strongest emotions, thus giving him the job of quietly holding them all together. Shriner portrays all the dimensions tellingly.

As the itinerant artist, Don Bowman (played by Scott K. Davis), this character sets up house and displays his artwork at Gladys’ shop. His artistic concern underlines Gladys’ problem As the character repeatedly makes clear, all the details in his work are real ones and are artistic depictions of memories that he wants to retain, ironically revealing that we ultimately can’t capture them that way, because we still have to recall that we did it and what the images mean. In his way, this character underscores the fragility of life.

“The Waverly Gallery” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, 8 p.m. on Friday-Saturday, and at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday through November 16 in the small Dietz Theater in Weathervane Playhouse, 1300 Weathervane Lane, Akron; 330-836-2626; www.weathervaneplayhouse.com. Tickets are $18 ($5 for college students).