Earlier this year, as states shut down because of the COVID-19 outbreak, many people (including celebrities) started playing“动物穿越。”a game where you and your friends design avatars and live in a brightly colored world filled with cuddly animals. In a world where we can’t go outside or physically see our loved ones, “Animal Crossing” became a bridge to human connection. But can a virtual connection be as strong as one in real life? Or is it an inferior avatar of the real thing?

Those are the questions in Madhuri Shekar’s timely and touching “In Love and Warcraft,” now being produced live via Zoom by American Conservatory Theatre and Perseverance Theatre on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 11 and 12, and available on demand Sept. 18 to 25.

Shekar’s play was shown onstage all over the country before the pandemic. It follows college-aged “World of Warcraft” gamer named Evie, who is used to having online relationships, stumbling through her first in-person romantic connection. An all-virtual production of a young girl navigating the physical world may seem antithetical, but under Peter J. Kuo’s ingenious direction, the medium enhances the message.

During “In Love and Warcraft,” instead of actors looking straight at their laptop camera like in most Zoom plays, the digital devices become the audience’s way of seeing them. Through creatively placed laptop cameras, smartphone cameras, even a security camera at one point, the audience spies these characters living their real and virtual lives. (If you saw the 2018 film“Searching”starring John Cho, this framing will seem familiar.)

When it’s a multi-person scene, Kuo directs actors to look in the direction of their scene partners, who we then see via another device reacting. When there’s any physical intimacy, it’s done off-camera.

Considering the show is done live, “In Love and Warcraft” is a feat of timing and creative camera angles. A combative three-person scene — seen through three cameras, including one iPhone that’s on the ground — is a particular creative highlight.

Still, it’s up to the actors to sell the audience on the conceit. Cast members have such chemistry together, and their faces are so expressive, that you believe they’re all in the same room.

卡桑德拉亨特给移动性能lovably awkward Evie, who is trying to figure out how to feel as confident in real life as she does in “Warcraft.” When she receives her first real-life kiss from Raul (Hernán Angulo), though you can’t see it, you feel the intimacy, like an old Hollywood film where onscreen kissing was censored.

As Evie’s boyfriend, Raul, Angulo has a boyish face and kindly demeanor that engender so much goodwill that his more callous moments come off not as cruel, but as mistakes worthy of sympathy cringes.

Evangeline Edwards plays Evie’s best friend, Kitty, whose promiscuous personality risked becoming one note, but under Edwards’ sensitive performance, you also see an uncertain young woman trying to find love in her own way.

Unlike “World of Warcraft,” there are no heroes and villains here. Real life is much messier.

Lana Palmer provided the ambient and transportive sound design. All of this is anchored by Shekar’s insightful and funny script, which sang the praises of multiplayer role-playing games before they were quarantine-cool. Through seeing the characters’ bonds leap off the screen, this “In Love and Warcraft” shows that despite distance and space, there are some things — like love, understanding and mutual respect — that can transcend the physical, that are boundless.

N“In Love and Warcraft”:Written by Madhuri Shekar. Directed by Peter J. Kuo. Live Friday-Saturday, Sept. 11-12.Extended streaming on demand from Oct. 9-16. Two hours. $15-20. 415-749-2228.act-sf.org

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