Remember The One? The One you think about when your current relationship is on the rocks. The One who was everything you wanted but did not need. The One who “got away” but somehow reappears intermittently in your life, something which is all too easy these days in the world of drunken e-mails, text messages and Facebook searches (you know who you are). But all of this would surely fade away if only you could get some closure... but when it all comes down to it, what is the price that has to be paid for closure? Ty Semaka asks this modern, double-edged question next week with his new black comedy Clo$ure, presented by Ground Zero Theatre’s Groundbreaker Series.

This latest venture for Semaka is both a departure and an adherence to his works of the past. Many will be familiar with him as the lyricist and singer of The Plaid Tongued Devils, as well as the creator and co-writer of One Yellow Rabbit’s wildly successful musical In Klezskavania, which ran in 1998 and 2005. Clo$ure, perhaps surprisingly, is not a musical, as this time around, Semaka wanted the challenge of writing a script for a small cast that would need to be carried by the text and a limited number of actors. “I think people expected me to write another musical,” he says, “but I really wanted to write a ‘real play.’” Moreover, to ensure his success, he has assembled a team that would be certain to bring the layered and twisted story to life, including OYR regular David van Belle as director.

Neither grandiose set design nor other tricks of the trade are used to capture the audience’s attention in this modern tale. The play opens with Virgil, played by Chad Nobert. Virgil, not a name dealt out by chance, is a lonely, drunk sort of chap, living in a hotel room because he has recently separated from his wife. Arriving back to his humble abode in an intoxicated state one evening, he finds an instant message from his ex-girlfriend Imogen, played by Anita Miotti. She is the travelled-the-world, boho-activist, enviro-artist type and she needs to borrow some money... again. In an Einstein-like moment of drunken clarity, Virgil responds with a proposition that will solve her problem as well as a few of his. It is clear that she was The One who somehow slipped away from him and he never felt he had closure regarding their breakup. Imogen agrees, not to obtain closure, however, but purely to avoid living in a cardboard box. With different motives, memories and desires, their strange night together unravels onstage.

Many contemporary themes are placed before the audience in this “what would you do?” sort of scenario. Would you ever make that offer? What would you offer? To whom? Why? Would you close the deal? Society’s perspectives on paying, or being paid, for sex are explored as is the inane need people have for this mysterious and universal thing called closure. It excuses telephone calls that should not be made and secret, heated meetings, but never ends the way one or both partners hope it will. Rarely is it ever worth the price — though often not monetary, it is hard to recoup the loss of time wasted, of tears shed, and, most often, of dignity. For Virgil and Imogen, the evening is a trek through the muddy depths of their past, and also finds time to explore divorce, alcoholism, internet sex and Dante’s Inferno. Sound too deep and philosophical? Fear not! This promises to be a comedy that is both dark and weird but, above all, human.