Doménica Feraud’s carefully observed new one-act drama, Someone Spectacular, lives up to its title. In its quiet exploration of six suffering souls meeting at a grief counseling session whose leader is mysteriously MIA, the show gradually exerts an emotional pull on theatergoers that is something quite spectacular.

The performance begins even before the lights go down as the six characters settle into a bland meeting space (designed by the collective dots) in the thrust stage of Pershing Square Signature Center’s Romulus Linney Theatre. There’s a carpet, a folding table with a coffee maker and some cups, a toddler-size plastic table and chairs in the opposite corner, and stacked chairs that get placed in a circle as newcomers arrive. But when the regular leader fails to appear, the group discusses whether to continue without her — and jittery Nelle (Alison Cimmet) reveals that she’s come to depend on the meetings: “This is what keeps me going. For seven days I wait to come to this shitty room in this shitty place and share my stupid feelings. Please don’t take that away from me.”

And so they proceed, incorporating elements of the absent Beth’s therapeutic practice (check-ins, breathing exercises for panic attacks) while clearly abandoning others. One crucial no-no is comparing each other’s grief, but this group can’t help it. We as audience members can’t either, especially as we come to understand what has brought these individuals to this room. The ever-patient Evelyn (Gamze Ceylan) and the abrasive Lily (Ana Cruz Kayne) have both lost mothers; middle-aged Thom (Damian Young), surgically attached to his Android and frequently stepping out to take an “urgent” call, has lost his wife of several decades; Nelle lost a beloved sister; and the shy Julian (Shakur Tolliver) mourns the loss of an aunt whom he describes as “the one person who had my back.”

And that leaves Jude (Delia Cunningham) a second-time visitor to the group with a china-doll delicacy. She’s the one who keeps reminding the group of Beth’s rules, and the others seem to resent her for that as well as for her decision to seek out the group a full 18 months after her miscarriage. “You can mourn a person forever, but there’s a timeline on a fetus,” she laments at one point — and at first the others seem to agree that she doesn’t quite belong, that her grief isn’t the same as theirs.

It isn’t, and that’s the point. Everybody’s experience of loss is different, even if the contours hold enough similarities that like-minded souls may find solace in each other’s company. Thom, who became a sweet tooth with his wife (“We never shared … because what kind of monsters split dessert?”), now avoids sugar. Meanwhile, Nelle can’t stop eating — even pasta, despite her inability to digest gluten. Feraud shrewdly serves up details of her characters in a gradual, naturalistic way, with dollops of humor throughout.

There’s a generosity to her approach that likely owes much to her background as an actor (she’s also serving as an understudy for Lily and Jude). Each character gets moments to stand out, to advance the overall story as well as their individual arcs, and each emerges as a kind of surrogate for Beth, the absent counselor, offering some advice or wisdom to keep the session on track. Director Tatiana Pandiani brilliantly calibrates the pacing of the material, never rushing or lingering too long on any individual episode. It helps that the cast is note-perfect, portraying well-meaning but flawed individuals who can shift easily from needling each other to offering a shoulder (or tissue). Someone Spectacular is an understated drama with a lot of heart — but more importantly, it has a soul.