iLove:

Be prepared to analyze any and every romantic relationship you’ve ever had. Maybe you’ll shoot one of your friends an e-mail or text message after doing so, and that will precisely prove New Stage Collective’s (NSC) point with this production, that our cultural environment informs — in many cases dictates — everything we do, specifically love.

Created by The Satori Group for NSC, iLove: takes on some heady topics: how we live in and around love in a technologically advancing society; how we define love; how we change as Americans; and how all of these facts affect each other. And it’s not all idealized imagery; being alone is part of it. (The show was originally titled Alone, Together, but because of the similarly named Fringe piece, Alone Together, Satori, an ensemble of CCM grads and students, made the change.)

The production was inspired by playwright Charles Mee’s (Re)making project, wherein he encourages artists to sample his works and create new works as a result. His play, Fêtes de la Nuit, was the starting point, and then Satori workshopped and developed it into their “unoriginal, original” work.

Words from Barack Obama, Richard Linklater, Björk and others are strung throughout, as are videos, phone and computer conversations and music. It’s fitting that, with our increased multi-tasking and instant access to information, the story is told through brief scenes, dance sequences and songs.

Past Fringe attendees will find iLove: compositionally similar to previous efforts of Matt Slaybaugh (Available light [theatre] and BlueForms Theatre Group). The excellent cast — Anthony Darnell, Adam Standley, Adrienne Clark, Lindsey Valitchka, Charlie Clark and the ensemble — interact effortlessly, which results in much provoked thought.

For example, when Standley and Charlie Clark’s characters find themselves in an actual in-person conversation about friendship — and Standley’s character, of a younger generation, goes on at length about all of his varied e-connections — they wonder if losing a friend you’ve never actually met in person is really losing a friend at all. The younger man holds that it is.

Another recurring thought is the difference between the who and the what. “Do we love people for who they are or for what they are?”

Other notable moments occur during two euphoric, nostalgic Hollywood-styled dance sequences (to “Singin’ in the Rain”) that become iPod commercials and cyber sex involving a 32- and a 15-year-old (“but we have a good connection,” the ’tween whines). Oh, and there’s nudity.

The set design is slick, too — costumes are primarily black, white and red; lights are used as props; a dry-erase board revolves to help signify a new scene (as well as mimic a Web browser). But a show about love is going to have its clichés, which are the only times we check our watch. “If you love someone, let them go” can only be said so many times.

That said, however, I wouldn’t be surprised if this show sells out. Grade: B+

— Jessica Canterbury