Like the old pro that he is, playwright Israel Horovitz knows the art of the slow tease and he also knows how to bear down and create chilling climactic moments.

In each act of his new wily, cynical tale, Sins of the Mother, the veteran stage master begins with low-key conversations that amount to a crafty dawdle. Audiences may even grow impatient with his repetition of minute details in what sounds like idle chat. But never doubt that Horovitz has calibrated each exchange, each lightly comic laugh line, as he inches towards resolutions both startling and satisfying.

Horovitz, who turned 70 last year, is being celebrated with a worldwide festival of productions and readings of his 70-plus stage scripts. Florida Stage joins in with this third production of Sins of the Mother. That is more previous audience exposure than most works at the Manalapan theater usually have, but it would be hard to turn down a play as bracing as this, particularly with the playwright offering to direct it himself.

The first act is set in a moribund stevedores’ union hall at a recession-shuttered Gloucester, Massachusetts fish processing plant. There the jobless — aging Vietnam vet Bobby Maloney (Gordon McConnell), antagonistic needler Frankie Verga (Brian Claudio Smith), decent, but dense Dubbah Morrison (David Nail) and the inevitable outsider, Douggie Shimmatarro (Francisco Solorzano), drawn back home after years away — come weekly to have their unemployment forms signed. They shoot the breeze and goad each other, irritating long-festered wounds until simmering resentments boil over.

Act two takes place nine months later, at the wake of Bobby’s wife, who died from a venereal disease — presumably AIDS, though it is never specified — whose origin links more than a few of the characters. Her casket lies stage left, but the elephant in the room is the violent act that occurred just before intermission and now must be covered up. Adding spice to the theatrical stew is Frankie’s twin brother Philly (Smith again, in a remarkably versatile acting turn), an affluent Toyota dealer who seethes with anger, but not directed where the others expect.

The rest should remain as surprises in director Horovitz’s testosterone-heavy production. Carbonell Award winner McConnell heads the cast as the father figure in this play full of parent-child tensions. He is alternately hot-tempered and teary-eyed, giving a fine performance that culminates in a eulogy laden with irony. The rest of the cast has been imported by Horovitz from other productions of the play. Sure enough, they could not be better, notably Smith who gives a stunning second act monologue of barely contained paternal hatred.

Richard Crowell has devised two richly detailed, very solid sets, marvels in the cramped quarters that Florida Stage will soon be leaving. By summer, they will move on to the Kravis Center. And with Horovitz’s theatrical connections and his dramatic skills, Sins of the Mother will be moving on to stages all over the globe.

SINS OF THE MOTHER
B+
Where: Florida Stage, 262 S. Ocean Blvd., Manalapan.
When: Through March 7.
Tickets: $45-$48. Call: (561) 585-3433 or (800) 514-3837
The verdict: A tale of parent-child tensions and surfacing resentments in a New England fishing town, in a testosterone-heavy production staged by the author.