The Department of Theatre and Cinema at Virginia Tech presents its third Mainstage production of the season with Sarah Ruhl’s “Dead Man’s Cell Phone.” Performances will be Feb. 16-20, 22-26 at 7:30 p.m. and Feb. 19-20, 26 at 2 p.m. in Squires Student Center Studio Theatre.

Faculty member David Johnson directs this beguiling comedy-drama that explores one woman’s dilemma when she finds herself in possession of a cell phone owned by a stranger she meets in a café - a stranger who is deceased.

“Dead Man’s Cell Phone” is a whimsical and abstract dreamscape about the distance between people created and reinforced by dependence on digital technology. The play is described as funny and serious, surprising and deeply poetic.

“There's a kind of balancing act in Ruhl's work - she seems to want it both ways, and her plays demand that those producing them must find that sweet spot between whimsy and acerbity, social commentary and frivolity,” Johnson said.

Ruhl, age 36, won a half-million dollar MacArthur Fellowship for her plays, which include “The Clean House,” a comedy that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2005. “Dead Man's Cell Phone” had its world premiere in 2007 in Washington D.C., and premiered in New York City in 2008 starring Mary-Louise Parker.

Tickets for reserved seating are $10 general and $8 senior/student and are available at the University Unions and Student Activities ticket office in Squires Student Center. For tickets, call (540) 231-5615 or order online.

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