BEIRUT: When we chat on social networks, we bond with people virtually, while remaining safely within our private spaces. Behind our computer screens, no one can see us or hear us – unless the webcam is activated – allowing us to express certain sentiments in writing while behaving in ways that are utterly incongruous. The recipient of the message doesn’t need to know.

“Online,” the new comic play by Josyane Boulos, now showing at Theater Monnot, enables the audience to see what can go on behind on the other side of the computer screen.

A comedy in three languages, “Online” portrays the virtual lives of Nanou (Josyane Boulos) a 40-something divorcee who is a “friend with benefits” of Rami (Chaker Bou Abdallah), but is actually in love with Dubai-based Alain (Mike Ayvazian). Insecure about how to behave and what to write to Alain, Nanou consults with her French friend Thomas (Clement Vieu) but actually takes the advice of her close friend Lamia (Rosine Saad.)

The play not only takes up the importance of social networking in today’s society but anchors this cosmopolitan premise in Lebanese realities by having the characters communicate in a mix of Arabic, French and English.

The stage design and lighting divides the space into four, one for each of the different characters. Rami’s and Thomas’ computers are stage right, while Alain’s office desk is center stage and Nanou’s flat is stage left. The back of the stage is dominated by a white screen, upon which the characters’ multiple conversations are projected.

The first thing Nanou does upon coming home is to switch on her laptop and then make herself comfortable. Alain and Nanou’s first comic conversation leaves the audience in stitches. Not knowing how to have a serious conversation with a woman, Alain asks questions like “How is the weather in Beirut?” Then he starts fidgeting and gets upset at himself for asking them.

Boulos brings a sense of humor to Nanou, and there is a lot of truth in her depiction of what a woman might do and think when waiting for a message from someone she wants. Ayvazian’s Alain is also a truthful portrayal of how some men feel when nervous about talking (even virtually) to a woman they like.

Later in the play, the two characters spend most of their virtual conversation sending each other kissing emoticons, “Mwah’s” and the like. In a virtual version of dramatic irony, the couple’s contest in affection expression is projected on screen for the audience’s amusement. The audience laughs throughout the scene, which is equally funny whether you’ve indulged in this sort of online behavior or not.

However, the action comes to an abrupt halt when Nanou’s flat is visited by one of Beirut’s much-loved electrical blackouts.

Chaker Bou Abdallah’s Rami is an archetypal macho Lebanese. He is the kind of guy who parties day in and day out, and who is intimate with many women. He doesn’t like the idea of another man approaching his protegee Nanou. “Ana Mabfaker,” he declares. “I act” (I don’t think. I act).

“It rains in Paris. It’s cold and [his] heater doesn’t work,” Thomas’ Clement Vieu says, depicting the cliche of an annoyed Parisian. When Nanou says to Thomas over the phone that “men are all the same,” he replies, “Well, you shouldn’t have tried them all!”

The audience laughs heartily.

Mostly absent from the stage, Saad’s Lamia nevertheless plays an important role in comforting Nanou. Her voice echoes through the theater while the two women talk on the phone and, when Nanou asks her advice on what to wear for her first real date with Alain, her face is projected on the omniscient screen.

The mingling of languages and the absence of personal interaction (thus eye contact) between the actors doesn’t prevent the audience (even non-Arabic speakers) from “getting” the show.

At the end of the performance, the players address their audience to ask whether Alain and Nanou should end up together or not. Audience members have to express their opinion by lifting flyers with a happy “smiley face” or a sad “smiley face,” handed out at the theater entrance as the audience filed in.

Most audience members raised the happy face, suggesting that Nanou and Alain should end up together. The gesture brings a nice element of audience-player interactivity to the performance, and offers a pleasant reminder that we can communicate without the aid of the Internet.

Josyane Boulos’s trilingual comedy “Online” is up at Ashrafieh’s Monnot Theater until Feb. 29. For more information please call 01-202-422.