Farhad Fatemi and Emlyn Guiney. Photo by Ali M Mahloudji

New absurdist plays are rare. Darvag Theater Group in partnership with Golden Thread Productions presents Suitcase. An Iranian Tragicomedy with Global Reverberations by Farhad Ayeesh at Intersection for the Arts, which revisits the old themes of alienation, hysteria, community, and love of life in a well-staged one-act. As usual, if you are looking for a plot, don’t look at the stage. Instead, look at your own life. In an hour and 20 minutes, this play takes 14 characters through all aspects of anomie (aka the absence of social norms in the case of uprooted people) with metaphor and allegory.

Characters arrive through ominously slamming doors. Each one carries a distressed white suitcase. The Engineer and the Psychiatrist begin the action in a long, silent confrontation as they circle each other warily. Just as it seems they might talk, a Poet is thrown through one of the three doors. Then they all circle each other, clutching their suitcases. Their total paranoia and distrust moves eventually to mutual aid as more people with suitcases come through the doors.

Human drama proceeds in this unexplained collection of readily identifiable characters. The Tailor and his Wife grow closer with their Poet son. The Military Man oversees the education of his Younger Daughter as well as the interactions of everyone else on stage. The Elegant Lady comes down from her haughty dismissiveness. The Engineer and the Psychiatrist argue over technical semantics, then decide to get married.

Only after 20 minutes have passed does anyone ask, “Where are we?” Light shifts change the focus among different groups, but no one leaves the stage. Conversations and relationships occur all over regardless of who is spot-lit. The sense of imprisonment and finality does not prevent the characters from continuing to live. Instead, these former strangers develop a sense of community. When the couple marries, the others take the Mother’s robe to make a wedding tent (against her wishes). After this metaphor of generational succession, everyone else hides behind the robe while the newlyweds are thwarted in their lovemaking by the suitcases between them. When a Man with a Big Suitcase enters, frantically tearing at his bag, the Military Man recognizes him as the man who killed his wife and stuffed her into a suitcase. The others try to help him get to her.

The community begins to break down over misunderstandings. The males face off against the females and it’s back to the wary, mistrustful confrontations. The Poet at first sides with the women, but slinks across to the men’s side, hiding behind his suitcase. Not until the final entrant, a Musician, comes in and charms them with his stringed instrument do they relax. They finally realize that they are carrying suitcases. They set down their baggage in a row across the stage to create a barricade behind which they take their bows.

The splotchy metallic gray of the set and the minimal use of props, along with the surreal activities on stage give this play a sinister, frightening edge. The characters are all strongly defined and much different from each other. The staging fills out the stage but still gives a sense of claustrophobia. It is a high-quality production by this Middle Eastern-oriented theatre company.

Even if plays like Zoo Story or Waiting for Godot leave you cold, Suitcase has enough human interest to offset its coldly analytic philosophy. There’s a lot of humor here, and the characters are sympathetic and easy to identify with.

Suitcase continues until at Intersection for the Arts, 446 Valencia St., SF. Tickets ($15-$20 sliding scale), call (510) 595-4607 or go to www.darvag.org