The debate over how much technology has taken over our lives gets an insightful and comic twist in “Dead Man’s Cell Phone,” which opens Feb. 2 at The Waterfront Playhouse.

Written by Sarah Ruhl, the play has proven to be a popular piece among regional and community theater groups and drew strong reviews when it opened in New York.”A beguiling comedy . . . with surprising twists and turns,” wrote The New York Times. “A fresh and humorous look at the times we live in,” added Variety.The story seems simple enough.”In a quiet café, a cell phone rings. And rings. And rings. The stranger at the next table has had enough.” When she confronts the man with the incessantly ringing phone, she discovers he’s dead. Should she answer the phone? Should she not?Well, the play answers that and many other questions as the stranger finds herself plugged into a life not her own.Charles Isherwood, reviewing the play for the New York Times in March, 2008, wrote that: “Ms. Ruhl’s work . . . blends the mundane and the metaphysical, the blunt and the obscure, the patently bizarre and the bizarrely moving. Characters in her plays, which include “The Clean House” and “Eurydice,” negotiate the no man’s land between the everyday and the mystical, talking like goofs one minute and philosophers the next.”She writes surrealist fantasies that happen to be populated by eccentrically real people, comedies in which the surface illogic of dreams is made meaningful – made truthful – by the deeper logic of human feeling. “Her theme in ‘Dead Man’s Cell Phone’ is the paradoxical ability of the title device (and the people who use it) both to unite and isolate.”Sarah Jessica Parker played the lead role of Jean when it opened off Broadway.The Waterfront Playhouse‘s production, directed by Stefanie Sertich, has Lela Elm in the lead role, along with: Brandon Beach playing Gordon/Dwight; Robin Deck playing Mrs. Gottlieb (the dead man’s mother); Stephanie Yosen playing Hermia, and Shakti Assouline in the role of “The Other Woman/Stranger.”Michael Boyer did the set design; Carmen Rodriguez did costume design. Lighting Design is by David Bird and Trish Manley handled stage manager duties for this production.Preview performances are scheduled at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31 and Wednesday, Feb. 2.Regular performances begin Thursday, Feb. 2 (opening night) and run through Feb. 18. An After Party following the opening will be held in the Sculpture Garden.Tickets range from $20 to $50 and can be purchased by calling the box office at 294-5015; or online, visit: https://waterfrontplayhouse.org.