Near the end of the second act of “Fuddy Meers,” David Lindsay-Abaire’s macabre comedy at 1st Stage, a hand puppet says to the other characters, “You’re all crazy.” And indeed, there are moments throughout the play when that analysis seems correct. In a moment just before intermission, for instance, chaos reigns supreme as gun-toting and knife-wielding characters wind up in a pile on the floor. Yet what’s at work in “Fuddy Meers” is not madness, and Lindsay-Abaire’s world isn’t irrational and illogical. Effects have their causes. It just takes a while for them to be revealed.

The play begins as Claire (MiRan Powell) wakes, looking warily around her bedroom as though she doesn’t know where she is. Richard (Kevin Hasser), explains that he is Claire’s husband, that she has “psychogenic amnesia,” meaning that every day she wakes up with no memory and must start life anew. Kenny (Jacob Yeh), their rebellious, pot-smoking son, enters and makes his disrespect for his parents abundantly clear.