Anna Kosiarek and Alejandro Flores Photo by Christian Pizzirani

City Lights Theater Company hits all the right buttons and scores big time in presenting In Love and Warcraft, which premiered in 2014 at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta. The play has since landed on stages all across the country (including a highly praised digital production in 2020 during COVID by San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater MFA Acting Program).

University senior Evie is a warrior princess extraordinaire when at the keyboard killing monsters and escaping sure death. She is also a highly sought after ghostwriter by "clients" who are having love problems and need her to create love letters, texts, online posts, or even old-fashioned telegrams using her turn-of-the-love-phrase skills to mend break-ups and misunderstandings. Evie has a boyfriend of sorts, Ryan, but the two have never met in person and only interact as partners in the online world of fantasy wars.

Evie's interest in a real-world boyfriend is non-existent, especially if sex were to be involved–quite the polar opposite of her roommate and best friend of four years, Kitty. Kitty flaunts her near-hyper sexuality in every way possible, from her skimpy, tight outfits to her sensual flirting with any male who passes to even the way she strokes her own legs and half moans as she tells Evie it has been a long twenty-two hours since she last "did it."

Meeting at the campus café, Evie has a client who even she has to admit is pretty damn hot. Raul needs a love note to mend an on-and-off-again relationship that just had another explosion. While Evie reads the note aloud as she composes it–continually stealing a few blushing glances at the guy across from her–Raul moves closer to read over her shoulder, their heads almost touching: "How can I put into words the pain I feel when you're not with me? ... The pain is so deep, in my bones, in my blood, so deep it has no beginning or end." As she reads and he looks into her eyes, there is no doubt that the romcom is about to move ahead, full steam.

With most of the two-hour evening yet to come, the means to any happy ending is of course going to be bumpy, especially since Evie lets it be known that, while she loves cuddling and even an occasional kiss, she has zero interest in sex for a reason even she does not understand. Her real hope is that she can convince Raul to join her in the virtual world where she can be her "real" self–something Raul has as little desire to do as she does to jump in bed with him.

Anna Kosiarek is immediately likeable as the powerful online warrior whose real-world self is often awkward, self-deprecating, and yet suddenly silly, but who melts into a puddle of gushes and goshes when she is around Raul. As Raul, Alejandro Flores is from the get-go sincere, patient, and yes, ever-so sexy without trying to be so. His willingness to go at a snail-like pace toward intimacy with Evie is admirable. There does come a point when enough is enough, and the real world and virtual world battles become quite similar.

Miranda Liu's Kitty exudes sexual tension, desire, and obvious experience while at the same time, she is a friend who genuinely loves and cares for a roommate she just cannot quite understand. She does all she can to coax and coach Evie towards "that first time" and becomes quite frustrated when her roomie won't consider approaching "first base" even after dating Raul for a month.

Bursting into the real-world scene of this blossoming relationship that has yet to flower is Ryan, Evie's former online fling and fellow warrior. Filip Hofman is superb as the once-boyfriend who only wants to punch computer keys during his online, video-gaming dates with the girl in another town–that is, until he decides in an explosion of foul language and fisted threats that he wants to punch her new love so he and she can return to the virtual world of digital forests and hidden dragons of fire.

Rounding out this excellent cast are Alycia Adame and Will Livingston, who each play a host of characters that serve as extras in the main scenes and star in short, interim vignettes connecting the main story's chapters. Whether called upon to be a much-aggrieved girlfriend (Adame) whose boyfriend (Livingston) is winning her back by repeating Evie's words as she bluetooths them into his ear; a Christian bride-to-be (Adame) seeking her wedding vows from Evie while bursting with excited breaths as she imagines her wedding night; a gossiping, tell-it-all in X-rated detail hairdresser (Livingston); or a number of other coupled lovers, a sex-seeking passerby, or inhabitants of a virtual game-world–in these and a number of other roles, both actors often draw the biggest laughs of the evening.

Kimberly Ridgeway directs the comedy with a flair for subtle glances that speak silent paragraphs and for eruptions of emotional outbursts that match any battle scene on a video screen. The director skillfully ensures a balance between the raging hormones of twenty-somethings and the search to discover a relationship where real connectedness is possible in a world that has become dominated by keyboards and phone pads.

Ron Gasparinetti's scenic design cleverly mixes the world of campus cafés and apartments with the virtual world of fantastical dimensions and beings. The incredible backdrop projections of Maxwell Bowman provide an ongoing tour of gaming world history, from Pacman and Mario onward to today's gun-pointing dramas. Madeline Berger not only gets to dress Kitty in all her sexy splendor but also to create a video climax come-to-life that displays her design creativity and imagination to the hilt. The lighting by Ed Hunter provides a campus setting where overhead trees not seen display their shadows. George Psarras' sound effects range from movie-worthy music to video game clicks to virtual-world growls and thunder. Together, all provide stunning touches to this staged world, both real and online.

For gamers, TV couch potatoes, or people who just like to read a good book, City Lights Theater Company's In Love and Warcraft is the best reason to leave one's isolated confines–whether online or real life–and to grab a ticket for a live theatre production that is guaranteed to produce plenty of laughs, a big smile, and a warm heart.

In Love and Warcraft runs through February 9, 2025, at City Lights Theater Company, 529 S. 2nd Street, San Jose CA. For tickets and information, please visit www.cltc.org.