In 1994, Steven Dietz wrote a play called “Lonely Planet,” which takes place in a small map store “in an unnamed American city” in 1988. Its only characters are Jody and Carl. Jody owns the store and suffers from agoraphobia, so he fears going outside. Carl is Jody’s polar opposite, sociable, flamboyant, always popping into the shop.

Yet, as the excellent MetroStage production makes clear, Jody (Michael Russotto) and Carl (Eric Sutton) are drawn together by a painful truth. Their friends are all dying. Although AIDS is never mentioned, it’s clear that it is the disease that is killing their friends, a threat to them individually and to the society they inhabit.