There’s something complicated, difficult, unique, and gratifying about the friendships we carry from school into adulthood. The friends from college you only see every couple of years, probably, because life just kept happening. They make you feel old as you look at the passage of time or make you feel young and they transport you right back to that time you first met. Eventually they start to bring a comfort of familiarity and we rely on that. But the tricky part about long lasting friendships is being able to tell if you actually still have things in common and enjoy each other’s company, or if you’re only left relying on shared history.

Allen Barton’s play Years to the Day shows us nothing more or less than two men who have known each other since college, over 35 years, catching up for the first time in six years. Over the course of about 80 minutes they talk about technology, aging, the latest movie politics, the latest in their family lives, and agree about very little.

But the history and the rapport between Jeff and Dan (played brilliantly in this mounting of the Beverly Hills Playhouse production by Jeff LeBeau and Peter Zizzo respectively) is solid and tight from their first bout of verbal sparring. It’s obvious from the start that these two have an established and comfortable energy with each other.

Credit for this goes equally between the writing and the performances. LeBeau and Zizzo bounce off one another with perfect dynamic energy, totally in sync. Zizzo’s Dan is loud and big and bombastic, perfectly in his fuck it era of saying what he wants and not caring how others take it. LeBeau’s Jeff is more restrained, but still whip fast with a come-back or an affectionate insult, and even as he’s adrift with recent changes in his life clearly finding a steady anchor for himself. Dan is the more talkative at times, so there’s plenty of chances for Zizzo to unleash a tour-de-force of a monologue while LeBeau delivers a master class in silently showing every step of his internal reaction along the way. On their own, each delivers a vibrant performance. Together, they’re in total sync.

But Barton, as playwright and director, has created a well-built playground for them to shine in. Opening with lightning fast comedic retorts, trading lines back and forth like opponents in a fencing match lightly thrusting at each other, before settling in to a deeper, supposedly calmer stretch of conversation before the barbs start up again, the pacing is nicely managed to keep you breathless until the right moment to ease up for a breath. For such simple staging (the two almost never stand up from the table they’re having coffee at), everything is engaging the whole way through and never feels static for a moment.

Years to the Day highlights all the ups and downs that come with a friendship straining under the weight of years of subtle changes. It’s funny and crass and at it’s heart there is something very tender born of long affection.