NEW YORK—Whether sitting next to strangers on an airplane or waiting in line at Starbucks, we don’t think much about most strangers we cross paths with. Yet if we did, what would we say to them and, more importantly, what would they say to us? This is the premise behind Keith Bunin’s drama “The Coast Starlight.”
Now at the Lincoln Center, the work offers a tantalizing glimpse into numerous unspoken conversations from a group of people all searching for an innocence they’ve lost.
The company of Lincoln Center’s production of “The Coast Starlight.” (T. Charles Erickson)
The story takes place on the train of the title, on its multi-stop journey from Los Angeles to Seattle.  Among the passengers are T.J. (Will Harrison), a Navy combat medic who’s seen too much on the battlefield and is currently on leave; Jane (Camila Canó-Flaviá), who works as a cartoon artist and hopes to one day to direct her own movie; Noah (Rhys Coiro), a former Army solider with his own demons from his time in the service; Liz (Mia Barron), who finds herself rather unexpectedly unattached; Ed (Jon Norman Schneider), who drinks in an attempt to keep his despair at bay; and Anna (Michelle Wilson), who wonders if she should tell her children a family secret she’s long kept hidden….