From back row left to right: Aetna Gallagher, Ken Opdenaker, Maria Konstantinidis, Brandon Pierce, Rachel Gluck and CJ Keller (Photo by JR Blackwell)

The Curio Theatre Company will stage a play opening this Friday that should resonate deeply in our ever-connected, hyper-talkative social media saturated world, a place where everyone talks but few communicate.

The Bald Soprano, the first work by Romanian playwright Eugène Ionesco, makes us laugh at all of this absurd small talk run amok. Originally set in the London home of the fictional couple The Smiths, who are having their friends, The Martins, over for dinner, the play has been updated to include – through clever screen projections –  all of that online gibberish that we all know too well. The play’s script stays true to the original set in the 1950s, but works in modern takes on the non-sequitur.

“Every day we are trapped in the web (pardon the pun) and we argue, sell, cajole, entertain and most of all, cross our wires on the internet,” said director Charlotte Northeast. “This show has pieces of that layered in to illustrate that whether we are speaking in the 1950’s or today, we haven’t mastered this whole talking and REALLY communicating thing.” 

Ionesco wrote the play as he was learning English and exposed to the stilted small talk common in the early stages of language learning. Originally written in French, it has gone on to be one of the most staged plays in France.

The Curio version includes Rachel Gluck as Mrs. Smith and CJ Keller as Mr. Smith. Ken Opdenaker plays Mr. Martin and Maria Konstantinidis plays Mrs. Martin. Aetna Gallagher is Mary, the maid and Brandon Pierce is The Fire Captain.

The Bald Soprano opens Dec. 4 at 8 p.m. and runs through Dec. 19 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There’s also a preview show tonight at 8 p.m. (tomorrow’s preview show is sold out). Tickets cost $15-$25 per person. Tickets and more information are available online at www.curiotheatre.org.