They say you can’t go home again. Yet in “Good Bones,” the new play by Pulitzer Prize winning playwright James Ijames (“Fat Ham”) that’s what Aisha (Susan Kelechi Watson) is doing when she and her chef husband Travis (Mamoudou Athie) buy a home in the neighborhood where she grew up. The neighborhood is filled with dark memories for Aisha; her mother died alone, a good friend was shot and killed, and she was beaten constantly by a neighborhood bully.

She and Travis develop a good relationship with their contractor Earl, (Khris Davis,) who is redoing their gorgeous monochromatic kitchen. The play opens with opaque plastic draping the unfinished spaces (Maruti Evans-set design). As the show and plot are revealed, so is the kitchen as pieces of the plastic are removed. The kitchen is elegant yet sterile.

Aisha is a consultant to a sports complex, determined to gentrify the neighborhood. Her job is to work with the community to relocate people. She rationalizes that it will be an improvement and she is doing a positive thing. “The little girl that grew up in those projects just wants to heal that place.” Earl who is renovating the house for them has a different feeling for the neighborhood and that’s where the conflict lies. The sports conflict will displace longtime residents. Where Aisha sees a rundown dangerous area, Earl sees streets filled with block parties and helpful neighbors.Earl thinks Aisha is betraying the community while she thinks he’s romanticizing the neighborhood. Aisha is a part of the group ousting the residents. The gentrification is not so much a racial divide but more a class one. Travis, having been raised with money and privilege, doesn't understand the emotions attached to the neighborhood.

The house has history and Aisha hears voices and hushed laughter. She even sees a ball rolling down the steps. Earl reminds her that the former owner was Sister Bernice, the first black woman on the city council. Although Aisha hears voices, Travis does not. The house appears to be ‘speaking’ to Aisha but that storyline is underdeveloped.

As Earl talks about the neighborhood fondly, Aisha begins to recall much of what she tried to forget. Although she’s worked hard to remove all traces of the old neighborhood, Aisha quickly recalls her youth when Earl’s sister Carmen (Téa Guarino) appears and the two do a kickline routine together. Her more polished speech changes as well.

The play is directed by Saheem Ali, who also directed “Fat Ham.” The acting is good, especially Watson who undergoes all sorts of emotions. Davis is mostly taciturn but turns sullen and angry. The script has very little movement so the actors do what they can but neither of the central characters become convincing. Despite a moment of conflict at dinner, there’s no resolution and the story feels anticlimactic.

Ijames doesn't give his actors enough room to grow. The kitchen is a thing of beauty. The contractor takes great pains to make it special and I wish the playwright had done the same, giving us the special handmade knobs and special artistic touches. The ‘good bones’ of the play are there; they just need more work.