I'm not a "never say never" kind of guy, but ending your play with a lecture that underscores every point made over the previous two hours is not a good way to send the audience out into the night.

That those same themes had been hammered home over and over again during Carlyle Brown's "Finding Fish" only made the finale more inexplicable. I half-expected a chalkboard to be produced during one of the interminable arguments used to underscore the point.

"Finding Fish" often feels like a lecture on oceanic pollution and sustainable fishing practices with a family drama welded onto it, along with a bit of mythology-inspired science fiction.

Sometime in the near future, the oceans have stopped producing fish. Rising water levels, algae blooms and fields of jellyfish make it nearly impossible for commercial fishermen to ply their trade. And even when they are able to cast their nets, the fish aren't there.

There's one exception. In a small Maine town, fisherman Peter (Bill McCallum) is able to find enough fish to not only sustain his family but bring his community back to life. His secret is unclear, but the renaissance started after he married his odd and very shy wife, Fiona (Jennifer Blagen).

Peter seems surprised that being the only working commercial fisherman would draw outside attention, but it comes in the form of his brother, Michael (Paul de Cordova), an oceanographer who has been sent to pry into Peter's secret.

Steve Hendrickson, Bill McCallum, Jennifer Blagen and Paul de Cordova are a family with a secret in “Finding Fish” at Illusion Theater.

This puts Michael at loggerheads not only with his brother but also his father, Henry (Steve Hendrickson), a crusty and bitter retired fisherman who seems to blame his son for what happened to the oceans. Oh, there's also the family's late matriarch and a lot of brother-on-brother angst in the equation.

All of this comes out as a total muddle. The show opens with an inert argument/lecture between Michael and Henry. That morphs into an inert argument/lecture between Michael and Peter, with Henry tossed in for good measure. Brown's script is all talk that goes nowhere.

Fiona's mysterious origins and abilities are the main hook, but that reveal is handled with all of the grace of a bad Agatha Christie knockoff. It also adds questions, chief among them: Why haven't we been watching her story instead of this dull, failing family?

There is a lot of talent on and off stage in this Illusion Theater world premiere. The actors are among the best in the Twin Cities, and expert at playing difficult characters. That is wasted. Director Noel Raymond can make the most unusual material come to life. That is wasted. Brown has proven to be a deft observer of the political and personal. That is wasted. "Finding Fish" wastes a lot, especially the audience's time.

Ed Huyck is a Twin Cities theater critic.