South Coast Repertory presents Completeness

Megabytes and microbes collide in Itamar Moses' Completeness, a romantic comedy about the budding relationship between a pair of science geeks that will have its world premiere on the Argyros Stage April 17 through May 8.

The couple at the heart of Completeness are grad students. Elliott (Karl Miller) is a computer scientist searching for an answer to the elusive Traveling Salesman Problem; Molly (Mandy Siegfried) is a microbiologist studying protein interactions. A chance meeting in the library leads to a scientific collaboration that turns romantic. But they soon realize that love is more complex than any scientific problem they've ever encountered.

"These are smart, smart people. Very analytical," said director Pam MacKinnon. "There's something in their DNA that has them always looking for answers. But love isn't something that can be solved, and that makes for delicious comedy."

MacKinnon directed SCR's production of Becky Shaw earlier this season, as well as Our Mother's Brief Affair in 2009. She recently directed Death of a Salesman at The Old Globe and is a frequent interpreter of the plays of Edward Albee, having directed premieres of Peter and Jerry (now called At Home at the Zoo, Hartford Stage Co. and Second Stage Theatre) and Occupant (Signature Theatre) as well as The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?, The Play About the Baby, A Delicate Balance and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Siegfried, who appeared in the Broadway production of Noises Off, originated the role of Molly in last year's Pacific Playwrights Festival reading of the play. Miller is new to SCR, but has appeared in numerous theatrical productions, including Forum Theatre's Angels in America, for which he won the 2010 Helen Hayes Award. Playing the various ex-girlfriends and ex-boyfriends who complicate Molly and Elliott's relationship are Brooke Bloom (SCR's Hamlet and A Feminine Ending) and Johnathan McClain (TV's "Retired at 35," Lincoln Center's Spinning into Butter).

This is Moses' second play at SCR. His first was 2006's Bach at Leipzig. His other full-length plays include Outrage, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back and The Den, as well as a musical adaptation of Jonathan Lethem's The Fortress of Solitude (with Michael Friedman). He writes for television's "Boardwalk Empire" and "Men of a Certain Age."