Playwright-director Joe Calarco (Shakespeare's R & J) sees the world premiere his dark new work, In the Absence of Spring, open Nov. 20 at the Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA.

Five years after a plane crash, the survivors struggle with death, sex and intimacy over a 24-hour period, until a catastrophic act sends them spiraling into a night journey filled with dreams and ghostly apparitions, according to production notes.

Previews began at the Signature Nov. 7 and performances continue to Dec. 17.

"This is a very personal play to me," Calarco said in a statement. "It deals with how we, in all our human frailties, struggle to connect with one another. It addresses how we deal with, or how we don't deal with, death, sex and intimacy."

The company includes Vanessa Lock (a Sig vet from 1993's Unidentified Human Remains...), Erik Sorensen, Minda Haren, Michael Glenn, Timothy Getman, Susan Lynskey and Susannah Berryman. Designers are Jim Kronzer (set), Anne Kennedy (costumes), Chris Lee (lights), Brian Keating (sound). Calarco's work has been seen in the DC area at the Folger Theatre (R & J), The Shakespeare Theatre (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and the Signature (as director of Side Show and Nijinsky's Last Dance).

Signature Theatre is the intimate Helen Hayes Award-winning nonprofit run by artistic director Eric Schaeffer, who staged the world premiere of Kander and Ebb's Over & Over and the Broadway-hopeful musical, The Rhythm Club.

Tickets for In the Absence of Spring are $25-$28. Signature is at 3806 Four Mile Run Drive, in Arlington, VA. For information, call (800) 955-5566 or (703) 218-6500, or visit the website at www.sig-online.org.