Progressive theater of 1980s San Francisco from the perspective of 2014 Carmel.

Local theater director Nina Capriola remembers fondly the 1980s gay theater scene in San Francisco, its ambitions and innovations, its struggles with AIDS and an inhospitable political climate.

"I worked a lot in the '80s at Theater Rhino," she says. "The play The AIDS Show came out of there. It was a groundbreaking gay theater. Still is. I was a director. All of this stuff was happening politically. AIDS was happening and a lot of theater came from that. It was important."

A year ago Capriola was turned on to a script from playwright Claire Chafee that reminded her of those heady days. So she decided to hire four of her actress friends and put it on at Carl Cherry Center. She decided that just one month ago. It goes on this Friday and Saturday (7:30pm both days, $10-$15)—two engagements only. It's called Why We Have a Body.

"It's a great play for women," Capriola says. "It came out of Magic Theater in 1990s gay theater culture, as so many good plays did."

But she stresses that it's not an exclusively gay or lesbian play, that it's about love, relationships, family and reconciliation. And though she describes it as a feminist play and it has no parts for men—doesn't even mention them—it's not a man-bashing piece, that there's "no point" to that.

The story centers on Lili (Emily Weinberg), a 30-year-old private investigator who mostly uncovers marriage infidelity, and her budding relationship with Renee (Mary Spence) a woman on the verge of divorce. Mary (Nikki Moon) is Lili's younger sister, who is a criminal and kind of crazy, and Eleanor (Deirdre McCauley) is the mother of Lili and Mary, a woman in her 50s who looks back on her life and seems to be reconsidering who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be. In their professions they are all scientists or seekers of truth.

"It's about searching and coming up with some kind of understanding of life so far," Capriola says. "It has a lot to say to us about being female now. I'm in my 50s, looking back on all these stages we have the privilege of looking back on."

She says it's been fun to "play in the ballpark" with her talented women friends, all of whom know each other, on this "thoughtful comedy." And that sounds like it could be conducive to a cohesive piece of theater, one that focuses on issues and ideas, about women and their search for identity and purpose and equal footing in a world in which their efforts are still shortchanged.

"It somewhat reminds me of [the '80s]. We're still talking about a lot of this stuff," Capriola says.