By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN — The time is 1911, a year when Vernon and Irene Castle soared to fame on the crest of the new craze for ballroom dancing, while the locked exit doors of the Triangle Shirtwaist Company would doom 154 young women to a fiery death when the building was destroyed in a blaze. The place is the Lower East Side of Manhattan, crowded with immigrants from Italy and Eastern Europe, who came through Ellis Island and settled in the cramped, cold-water tenement flats, and who found work in local sweatshops and markets as they struggled for a new American identity.

The setting is for Syncopation, the current offering on the New Haven stage of Long Wharf Theatre.

Henry is a surly, argumentative 42-year-old Jewish meatpacker who lurks on the edges of cafes and restaurants, observing people and dreaming of becoming a fabulous dancer like the Castles. Picking up extra work as a dishwasher, he earns the money to rent a single room, six flights up, but with a good solid floor, where he can practice.

He places a series of personal ads in the newspaper: “Wanted: a woman with a desire to be a ballroom dancer…” For seven weeks he dances alone, and then…

Anna is a spirited, 23-year-old Italian, who sews beads on women’s clothing in a garment factory. Engaged to be married to Mr Anthony Parvo — a good, solid prospect who owns his own dry goods store — Anna answers Henry’s ad not so much because she wants to be a dancer (she is woefully clumsy at the onset) but because she is intrigued with the idea of pursuing a dream.

Anna is not sure what her own dreams are, only that there must be more beyond the narrow confines of her life. Timidly she agrees to come to Henry’s studio, one evening a week, so they can practice until they become good enough to venture out into the world of hotels and popular dance halls, where Henry is convinced they will one day be able to “dance before royalty.”

Punctuated by sessions of dancing in which Anna slowly develops grace and confidence, the conversational exchanges between the two provide vivid glimpses of the new American world on whose periphery they live.

While Anna is gradually caught up in the appeal of the new “intellectual” movements, opening her mind to new thoughts and possibilities, the emotionally remote and sardonic Henry is falling in love with the woman he claims is purely a “dance partner.” What happens forms the crux of this fascinating and appealing fable, which playwright Alan Knee imbues with a clear sense of history.

Beautifully acted by David Chandler and Lorca Simons, with a hauntingly evocative set by Judy Gailen, Syncopation is a delight from start to finish.

(Long Wharf will continue to present Syncopation through December 19. For tickets, call the theatre’s box office at 203/787-4282.)