There’s meaning in the missing

From our car keys to our hearts, we all lose things. But this universal fact of life has never had the kind of offbeat scrutiny it receives from the Civilians in “Gone Missing,” the hit collaborative performance piece that began its Southland tour Wednesday at UC Santa Barbara’s Campbell Hall.

The Civilians’ unique brand of experience-based musical theater begins with real-life stories -- in this case, interviews with New Yorkers about the loss of their most treasured objects. Unlike strictly documentary-style works (such as “The Exonerated”) that deliver their source narratives verbatim, the Civilians use their subjects as a creative starting point -- the cast re-creates the voices and personalities of interview subjects based on recollection, without recourse to notes or tape recordings.

The goal, artistic director Steven Cosson explained in an after-performance talk-back with the audience, is to be “truthful, though not necessarily accurate.”

The resulting balance of real-life experience and creative liberties proves remarkably compelling, driven by the performers’ unwavering efforts to represent their subjects as complete human beings rather than objects of satire or exaggerated pathos.

Comedy and drama abound in the more than 30 anecdotes, performed by six versatile actors. Some are brief snippets, others extended narratives that are woven together. A woman’s hilariously manic quest to retrieve a lost Gucci pump -- recounted through a serious of increasingly desperate voicemail messages -- contrasts with the macabre tales of an affable retired cop recalling the corpses he’s encountered in the line of duty.

There are little triumphs along the way -- a heroic plunge into a dumpster to recover a child’s lost doll -- and bittersweet ironies, such as one man’s frantic calls to his lost cellphone, which finally get someone to answer and return it -- after which he only ends up losing it again.

The emerging focus in the piece is on not the objects themselves, which are often trivial, but the importance their owners attach to them, which makes them profound in each case.

Original songs by Michael Friedman underscore these themes in a whimsical cabaret style with cerebral lyrics. In one classic ballad about fading memory, a woman sighs, “I’m an Etch A Sketch -- but now I’m all shook up.”

One invented sequence by playwright Peter Morris ties the show’s themes together in a radio interview with “Dr. Palinurus,” the supposed author of “Losers Weepers,” who weaves Plato, Atlantis and Freud to define nostalgia as “the pain you feel from going home again.”

In an eloquent final image, the departing cast leave their coats floating on suspended hooks, reminding us of the characters who once occupied them.

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‘The Civilians: Gone Missing’

Where: UC Riverside ARTS Studio Theatre, 900 University Ave., Riverside

When: 8 p.m. today

Ends: Today

Price: $28

Contact: (951) 827-4331

Running time: 1 hour,

20 minutes

Also

Where: Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine

When: 6 and 9 p.m. Saturday

Ends: Saturday

Price: $35

Contact: (949) 854-4646