The Purple Rose Theatre has made its mark as an outstanding professional theater company with smart, contemporary comedies with a sting.

So it’s appropriate that the Chelsea theater founded by Jeff Daniels would mark its 100th presentation with a new production of Detroit playwright David MacGregor’s Vino Veritas, which had its world premiere at the Purple Rose in 2008. It is a fine example of the plays that the company has premiered over the years. It’s contemporary, witty, fast-paced but also biting, brutally honest, and perceptive about the worries and frustrations of middle-class Americans.

Vino Veritas is set in “an upper middle class living room” on Halloween night. As the play opens a couple are waiting for their neighbors to come for a drink before they all head off for their annual appearance at a costume party.

The couple has recently returned from a trip to Peru. This was a rare adventure for the two studio photographers who had once been daring photojournalists. It was, it seems, an attempt to re-spark a troubled relationship. While there, the wife is given a bottle of wine made from the skin of blue dart tree frogs. The wine is alleged to be a truth serum.

The wife wants to share the wine with their neighbors; the husband is horrified by the idea. The madness ensues when the wine flows.

This is a funny set up for a series of revelations, comic, upsetting, and sometimes dark. But MacGregor’s sharp wit, his feel for contemporary culture, and his sympathy for the characters he’s created make this an excellent example of the kind of theater the Purple Rose presents so effortlessly.

Director Rhiannon Ragland makes that living room atmosphere so real that the audience might feel like voyeurs looking in on their neighbors. The banter flies with precise timing but is never about jokes. Underlying the humor is the story of two couples and how they handle the truth. Ragland gives proper balance to the funny and the sad.

In a press release, MacGregor summarizes the play’s intent, “Do you really want the truth or do you only want the truth you want to hear? And how many of your friendships and relationships would survive if other people knew what was really on your mind?”

What’s on Lauren’s mind is that her perfect life with a husband and two children lacks the adventure she once knew. The husband, whose courage she loved, is now a bit of a goof who’d rather joke than deal with the undercurrent of unhappiness in their relationship.

Kate Thomsen’s performance as Lauren is front and center. She is deeply into the character. She has a bit of underlying melancholy while trading witticisms with her mate or playing word games with her neighbors. Thomsen’s timing is precise, her movements natural, and when the emotions finally go deep, she makes the most of it. This is a great performance.

David Bendena is her equal as Phil, a man who tries to be happy-go-lucky even when he knows things aren’t right. Phil is a natural charmer, a nerd for trivia, a lover of pop culture and fast foods and Halloween humor. He’s a regular guy and Bendena is so comfortable embodying this facade that we are taken up when he lets the facade down. He then reveals a depth of understanding of a man afraid of opening up for fear of losing what he may have already lost.

The neighbors are a bit older and at first seem well settled, but there are clues. Uptight doctor Ridley and his wife Claire are ready for the party. But Ridley is dressed in his labcoat; Claire is elaborately decked out as Queen Elizabeth I. Ridley is a stiff, a fuss-budget, and doesn’t want to test the waters. Claire, like Lauren, is yearning for something else.

Aphrodite Nikolovski is hilarious as Claire, the broadest comic role in the show. As the truth serum works its wonders, Claire lets loose as she’s been wanting to do for ages. Nikolovski takes some wonderful manic turns on everything from a devastating take on Winnie-the-Pooh and all the denizens of the Hundred Acre Wood to a raging declaration of sexual fervor. It’s a giddy role that moves from sedate to manic to, well, sedated.

Alex Leydenfrost has the thankless role of being the supposed rational center. He’s the soft-spoken party pooper Ridley. Leydenfrost gets his turn at both self-righteous indignation and dishonest moralizing, but the character lacks the nuance of the other roles.

The set design by Sarah Pearline is another of those meticulously detailed Purple Rose environments. Look about the sleek but casual great room and see the telling details of what Phil and Lauren value in their lives. The set works especially well for the deeply real production Ragland has created.

Patrons of the Purple Rose will lift a glass of less powerful wine to Jeff Daniels and Artistic Director Guy Sanville in wishing them 100 more productions that offer provocative and entertaining perspectives on our lives and the world we live in.

Hugh Gallagher has written theater and film reviews over a 40-year newspaper career and was most recently managing editor of the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers in suburban Detroit.

Vino Veritas continues at The Purple Rose Theater, 137 Park Street, Chelsea, Wednesdays through Sundays to May 27. Tickets range from $20.50 to $46 with special discounts for students, seniors, teachers, members of the military, and groups. For information or to make reservations, call 734-433-7673 or go online to http://www.purplerosetheatre.org.