A Feminine Ending is a frustrating piece - and not for the reasons the author intended. The story is set in the present day. Amanda is a young woman who wants to be a composer. She talks a lot about it. She even plays a few bars of a piece she has written, explaining that a feminine ending, musically speaking, is one without a resolution - an ending that leaves the scent of a question in the air.

The play follows Amanda as she ricochets off some fairly interesting people, all the while complaining that there are no famous female composers, and asking why that is. And what if she writes something that is no good?

Nothing anyone says — and there are some terrific vignettes clustered between her bouts of whining — seems to have any effect on Amanda. Not her mother talking about taking risks; not her father reminding her that nothing we do is all that important, which is okay because life is short; not her old boyfriend, who advises her that they have no chance together and that her life is waiting back in New York. Nothing makes a dent, and our protagonist ends up just about smack where she began, fretting about the composition she is not writing.

We learn a lot from the other characters. We leave the theater altered, but Amanda does not change in any way. The play could easily have happened without her being there at all. It could have been all monologues about a character we never see. That would have been a timesaver.

It's too bad, because all the actors turn in wonderful work - especially Joe Paulik as Billy, a character with all his dimensions fully formed. He's one sandwich shy of a picnic, but he shines light on one subject after another. Richard Masur and Marsha Mason too have moments of mid-life lucidity that pack a wallop.

Director Blair Brown does what she can, but playwright Sarah Treem needs a dramaturge to guide her towards the strength of what she is writing, so that she can let go of the myth of what she thinks she is saying.

A Feminine Ending by Sarah Treem; directed by Blair Brown; with Alec Beard (Jack), Gillian Jacobs (Amanda), Marsha Mason (Kim), Richard Masur (David) and Joe Paulik (Billy).

Sets by Cameron Anderson; costumes by Michael Krass; lighting by Ben Stanton; original music and sound by Obadiah Eaves; production manager, Shannon Nicole Case; production stage manager, Robyn Henry. Presented by Playwrights Horizons, Tim Sanford, artistic director; Leslie Marcus, managing director; William Russo, general manager. At the Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 W. 42nd St., New York City; (212) 279-4200. Through Nov. 11. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes.