While watching Redbud Productions’ staging of Horton Foote’s “Dividing the Estate,” you realize that it’s hardly a coincidence that a 2008 Broadway production of the play hit paydirt.

With its focus on a family struggling to face hard, new realities in the midst of an economic downturn, the play — despite premiering, in its earliest form, in 1989 — couldn’t be more of-the-moment.

Set in Harrison, Texas in 1987, “Estate” chronicles a fateful gathering of the Gordon clan on the family’s 100 year old estate. Octogenarian matriarch Stella (Michele Derr) rules the roost, while daughter Lucille (Lenore Ferber) and grandson Son (Chris Starkey) work to maintain and manage the estate, respectively. Stella’s other daughter, Mary Jo (Loretta Grimes), hauls her husband Bob (Joe Eadie) and two grown, divorced daughters, Sissy (Jenny Pritchett) and Emily (Leslie McCarty), from Houston to make a case for Stella dividing the estate while she’s alive; and Stella’s son Lewis (Thom Johnson) mostly cares about getting enough money from the estate to gamble, drink and chase after young girls.

In addition to its timeliness, “Estate” benefits, of course, from being written by Foote, an American master of dramatic storytelling. With seeming effortlessness, for example, Foote provides just enough backstory — in subtle, un-self-conscious ways — for each person in “Estate”’s broad, extended family to be established in fairly short order.

What’s missing from director Tim Grimes’ production, however, is the chemistry — the palpable spark and pop — that must be achieved to fully animate this family. The show's energy and the pacing wobble at times, and Foote’s dry humor is muted to the point of often getting lost.

Yet it must be noted that “Estate” is an ambitious undertaking for non-professionals. Clocking in at a little more than two and a half hours, the play demands much — emotionally and endurance-wise — from its ensemble. And with this in mind, a few individual performers stood out on opening night.

Emily Rogers, as Son’s schoolteacher fiancée, Pauline, provides a great foil for the self-absorbed, ambitionless Gordons. While she’s constantly trying to smooth things over with sunny kindness, and share what she considers important, fascinating information, the Gordons merely roll their eyes and dismiss her as an annoying know-it-all.

Derr makes a believable matriarch, while Starkey and Ferber — the “don’t make waves” contingent of the family — both have nice moments as Stella’s support system. And Loretta Grimes is appropriately pushy and strong-willed as the character that just can’t let the issue go.

Attila Huth and Deb Wood’s set design hints at the home’s former, majestic grandeur, and Kyle Marie’s hair design for Emily and Sissy — big, curling ironed ‘dos — help bring the ‘80s more fully to life. Meanwhile, Loretta Grimes and Ferber’s costume design, with a couple of exceptions (Mary Jo’s fire engine red western wear seemed too over-the-top, and Emily’s long animal print skirt with shoulder-cut-out shirt stuck out), served the production well.

Ultimately, “Estate” is a kind of dark family vaudeville, exploring the chaos that results when family members’ desires are at odds with each other. Foote’s ending is terrific, in that it invites us to imagine the hilarious and doomed next act for this troubled family. But if you want that final moment to have maximum impact, what precedes it must crackle with a sharp sense of friction and meticulous timing.

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.