On Thursdays through Saturdays, through March 6, go to Manhattan Theatre Source to learn "All That Might Happen," in John Philip's intense new one-act, three-scene play, when a New York City gay male couple, Corey and Seth, portrayed by real-life couple playwright Philip and Andrew Loren Resto, excitedly prepares to enter into a contract with their young neighbor Helen, an aspiring social worker, played by Mariah Bonner and, in a later incarnation, Barbara Mundy, to raise a child, with Helen serving as surrogate mother, only to find out, when she bursts into their apartment, that she has had a change of heart, due to dramatic developments in her personal life. Even though Philip forecasts the outcome in a first scene, which functions as a sort of prologue, taking place 18 years after the heart of the play, set in 1984, the action of the potent central scene remains appropriately fraught, thanks to the accomplished playwright and cast and the knowing direction of Michael Portantiere. Bracketing the middle scene are the first and third/epilogue, in which we meet young birthday boy Josh (Brandon Ruckdashel), who is studying psych at a school in Boston. "All That Might Happen" opened on February 19 and the opening night performance is considered here.

In Scene Two, the men debate names for the baby; get ready to celebrate their anniversary; and plan a final summer fling in Fire Island Pines before succumbing to the responsibilities of fatherhood. With Helen, they discuss proposed financial arrangements; her continuing education; her multi-faceted relationship with Corey before Seth entered the picture; and the charged subject of sex early in the age of AIDS. I confess to wondering how Philip would manage to realize so a complex situation in such a short work, but he succeeds indeed in succinctly and convincingly covering all bases with sensitivity and eloquence.

George McGarvey designed and Robert Wisdom executed the realistic living room and kitchen of Corey and Seth's Manhattan apartment. Paintings, the work of Resto, adorn the wall. The window of the theater lobby becomes the couple's own window on their world. Donna Summer's "Bad Girls," spinning on the turntable, helps fix the time as a few decades ago and, in a touch of verismo, an actually percolating coffeemaker adds its voice to the proceedings. In the 2002 sequences, Josh and Helen converse on cell phones from opposite ends of the country.

Performances of "All That Might Happen" begin at 8 p.m., just past the entranceway of Manhattan Theatre Source, at 177 McDougal Street, off Eighth Street, while another play is being given upstairs. Tickets at $18 can be obtained via http://www.theatermania.com or by telephoning 212/352-3101.