The latest production at A.C.T. is less a theater piece than it is a dance piece, and it's not quite the experimental, genre-blurring work that it aspires to be as it is a Forrest-Gump-esque tour of the 20th century as conceived by a choreographer.

The Tosca Project is a collaboration with the San Francisco Ballet, and purports to tell the story of the legendary Tosca Café in North Beach through a unique blend of theater and dance. It features only the briefest, almost monosyllabic dialogue, and the story centers on the bar's owner and a female immigrant, to whom he ultimately hands over the business.

Primarily, this is a dancers' showcase that comes off a bit like The Nutcracker, only instead of the Arabian dancers and the Sugar Plum Faerie, we have 1940s sailors, 1950s beatniks, and 1960s hippies each taking their turn at center stage. Though there are some inspired moments that dance aficionados are certain to love, for most theater-goers under the age of 50 The Tosca Project is likely to remind one of a live version of that YouTube "History of Dance" thing, with a bit more of a high culture pedigree.