The Gibbs girls never wandered far from home. Even in their golden years, they live in each other’s pockets. Except, of course, for Esther. She moved practically across town when she married David, the college professor too good for the rest of the Gibbses.

Ida, her husband, Carl, and their 40-year-old son, Homer, live next door to sister Cora and her spouse. Aaronetta Gibbs, the unmarried sister of the bunch, lives with Cora and Thor yet wears her loneliness like a millstone.

These are the people who inhabit Paul Osborn’s “Morning’s at Seven,” being performed through Aug. 9 at the Belfast Maskers. Although first produced in 1938, the play’s dead-on depiction of sibling rivalry and filial devotion still is vividly authentic 65 years later.

“Morning’s at Seven” affords seven actors the rare opportunity to portray senior citizens interacting with each other. In the Masker’s production, all but one of the performers appears old enough to be a card-carrying member of AARP. In America’s youth culture, few plays are as well constructed and precisely written as Osborn’s is, let alone peopled entirely with mature characters.

Aynne Ames, founder of Castine’s former Cold Comfort Summer Theater, directs “Morning’s at Seven” with an emphasis on the comic and wry pathos that bubble to the surface of every family cauldron.

The veteran director cast the production well, then gently guided her actors through Osborn’s script to assure that the comedy never turns to farce and the pathos doesn’t descend into tragedy.

Ames also plays Ida in the production. The other actresses portraying her sisters

are Christine Cox as Cora, Avery Booth Stone as Aaronetta and Victoria Covill as Esther. The four women capture all the loving animosity that ebbs and flows among siblings.

Stone’s Aaronetta is a ball of energy. Like a firefly, she flits from one sister to the next lighting up her flaws. The actress portrays the long-suffering old maid with the perfect mix of sour grapes resentment, loneliness and unrelenting spirit. In this capable actress’ hands, the character is not only the most irritating but also the most lovable Gibbs girl.

Ames gives the worrywart Ida an anchored earthiness, Cox captures Cora’s dreamy quality and Colville shows how the sometimes snooty Esther finds the acceptance she craves from her husband only among her sisters. The four women work together onstage as equals never trying to outdo one another as real sisters undoubtedly would have.

The men in “Morning’s at Seven” easily could have been overshadowed by these women, but Ames is too experienced a director to allow that to happen. Also, the four actors’ portrayals are too strong to be so freely eclipsed. Their only minor problems are minor – Thor’s inexplicable English accent, courtesy of actor Jim James along with the Scottish brogue supplied by actor Charles Hunter, who plays Homer. Also, Hunter cannot pass for 40 in the close quarters of the Maskers’ 3/4-round performance space.

James along with Philip Price as Carl and Geordie Squibb as David let the dashing, young men they used to be shine through. Each man becomes a perfect foil for his wife, having learned after so many years of marriage when to push, when to pull and, most importantly, when to be silent and let the sisters slug it out.

Cassandra Palmer plays Myrtle Brown, Homer’s very patient fianc?. Her cheery delivery is perfect for the part and counteracts Hunter’s whining Homer.

Nell Moore’s minimalist set gives the feel of two back porches with adjourning backyards, but gives ample room for the actors to maneuver easily onstage.

“Morning’s at Seven” is a delightful departure from the standard summer theater offerings, and in the capable hands of director Ames and her cast, it captures family life in America – warts, wrinkles, laughter and lamentations.

The Belfast Maskers will present “Morning’s at Seven” 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 5 p.m. Sunday through Aug. 10 at 43 Front St. in Belfast. For tickets, call 338-9668.