There are two paths to “disappearance” in David Cale’s engaging “Sandra” currently running at the Vineyard Theatre. The audience discovers that Ethan Martin’s path has been well thought out. Sandra Jones’ (Marjan Neshat) path on the other hand is completely reactive, random, and riddled with danger. Two paths diverge in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and the choices made by both on those paths have made “all the difference.”

David Cale’s narrative begins in the present with Sandra addressing the audience “in a confiding manner, as if she’s speaking to friends.” She recounts having dinner the prior evening with her gay friend Ethan before his departure to Mexico. Sandra’s problem is that Ethan never got on the plane in Puerto Vallarta that was to bring him home and she intends to find her missing closest friend. That conflict drives the pleasingly convoluted plot that explores the deepest meanings of “disappearing from one’s life.”

As Ethan hugs Sandra goodbye, he shares, “I feel like disappearing from my life. Part of me just isn’t in the world. I’m at a remove.” Sandra replies, “Even from me?” Ethan’s answer is a foreshadowing and becomes the strong fiber that holds the storytelling together: “No, not you”, he said, “But you and I are so simpatico, if I vanish, you’d probably disappear from your life too. I love you, Sandra. I love you so much.”

The balance of the intriguing eighty-minute story ricochets between New York and Mexico as Sandra goes full in to find Ethan. David Cale knows how to tell a story and Marjan Neshat excels in delivering Sandra’s story with passion and urgency. Storytelling is theatre and theatre is storytelling. The focus is on the well-crafted tale and the troubadour delivering the narrative. “Sandra” needs no turntables, ramped up amps, technical wizardry, or multilayered sets to mesmerize its audience. That said, Rachel Hauck’s unobtrusive scenic design, Linda Cho’s one costume design, Thom Weaver’s gossamer lighting, and Kathy Ruvuna’s sound design counterpoint David Cale’s romance with perfection and collectively prove that in making successful theatre less is often preferable to more, and more satisfying.

It is impossible to say more about “Sandra” without a multitude of spoiler alerts. What can be said is that the audience will discover at the last moment that Ethan did vanish, and Sandra did disappear from her life as well. Also permissible to report is that: Sandra is estranged from her husband Richard; two detectives and an FBI Special Agent help Sandra in her quest; Sandra meets Maggie and Peter Raymond friends from her Crown Heights café; she meets Beauford in Puerto Vallarta who has “vaguely Southern accent;” Sandra finds a mysterious message in a bottle in Ethan’s handwriting; and she meets a longhaired man who was with Beauford who holds the key to understanding who Luca Messina might be.

Marjan Neshat portrays all the characters in “Sandra” with believability. The actor skillfully gives each character a distinct personality including the protagonist who receives a new name. How Sandra Jones becomes Sandra Rivers and how she ends up in coastal California is a story worth hearing. One spoiler alert: listeners are distant enough from the narrative not to get totally lost but close enough to be tempted with disappearance.