Mixed Blood Theatre’s first look at the disabled community, “The History of Bowling,” is a strong story that uses issues of disability as a catalyst for character growth. It avoids simplistic characterizations and easy remedies to frustrations with fate.

The plot is straightforward: Lou (Ann Kim), an epileptic, decides to use her disability to get out of her college P.E. course. The professor pairs her with 32-year-old freshman Chuck (Bob Ness), who uses a wheelchair, to write a sports-related term paper which, at Chuck’s insistence, will be on the history of bowling.

A romance develops between the two, and Lou confronts her own disabled history and insecurities while trying to draw out Chuck, who spent years cooped up in his mother’s attic watching T.V. and shying away from social interaction.

Although “History” is ostensibly a story about disability, it manages to be much more. Lou and Chuck each have their own colorful histories and vibrant personalities for which disability only serves as a foil, not a focus. Chuck is a classic curmudgeon, closed to the world, and watching Lou forcibly open him up gives the story resonance. Likewise, Lou’s insecurities, brought on by a history of failed romance and embarrassment, make her more sympathetic than if her experiences had been shaped solely by virtue of her disability.

The playwright, Mike Ervin, emphasizes how skewed impressions of the disabled can be. In one scene, Chuck scorns the patronizing attitudes of the Christian ladies who run “Bowling Buddies,” a program for disabled bowlers where the score is never kept for fear of hurting someone’s feelings. It’s symbolic of a world where he’s never an equal, and where everything “is one happy-ass freakin’ tie” because he’s seen as too fragile to handle life’s vicissitudes.

Despite the ability of the play to deliver these vital details, there are a few sticking points in the script. Sometimes the characters seem to be purposely inarticulate, tossing out an “ain’t” or “anyways,” apparently to give their speech some “authenticity.” Certain themes and segments don’t add up.

But these problems would be milder if the acting were smoother and played at a slower pace. The main problem is that many of these scenes feel rushed, with too much happening too fast. The characters meet, they fall in love, they argue and discuss, and this would all seem plausible, except that each scene itself seems to slip in under our radar and pass before we can really process the moment. There is little pause, and the actors seem anxious to move on, often before the impact of the last line can take effect.

The acting could have tackled even the most tumultuous and demanding parts if the weightier moments had been given their due-though I must admit to being biased toward the writer, a friend of my cousin and someone I’ve met.

“The History of Bowling” is a good bet for a few laughs and some interesting interplay between characters. Better acting, though, would have compelled the audience to wish that their own lives were as challenging and cathartic as Lou’s and Chuck’s are.