In ‘Hi, Are You Single?,’ Ryan Haddad plays himself: a gay man with cerebral palsy seeking love

Recounted with wit and admirable, self-effacing candor, “Hi, Are You Single?” traverses terrain that’s rarely accorded air or stage time: the sex life of a person with cerebral palsy. In this case, the person is a gay man, actor Ryan J. Haddad, whose television credits include roles on Netflix’s “The Politician” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.”

In the wryly poignant, hourlong production, filmed recently at Woolly Mammoth Theatre in Washington, D.C., with a socially distanced, invited audience, Haddad plays himself, a man in his late 20s, recalling his diligent efforts to find a boyfriend and have sex. As you might suspect, this is a particularly raw and fraught topic for a man who uses leg braces and a walker. Speaking of raw: His frank dramatization - the show begins with Haddad on the phone, shorts around his ankles - makes this an online event for more mature audiences.

Haddad has been touring this show for several years, drawing on the experiences in bars and dorm rooms that seem to have deepened a natural gift for comic detachment. The piece, directed by Laura Savia and Jess McLeod and filmed in the manner of a comedy special on a premium channel, strives mightily not to earn reflexive sympathy, even if one’s impulse is to offer it. So as you watch, you do at times find yourself struggling with your own naive notions of how people with disabilities deal with the physical drives and needs felt by their fellow human beings.

The result is that “Hi, Are You Single?” provokes particularly complicated responses: You’re made so painfully aware of Haddad’s vulnerability that it’s hard to call the experience of sitting through it consistently enjoyable. Ultimately, though, the hour proves enriching, in the light it casts on Haddad’s completely understandable desires. “I’m scared because now you’re different in two ways,” is how

Haddad says his mother reacted, after he came out to her in college. Speaking of the love connections he tries to forge on dating apps, Haddad reports about men who claim not to have noticed the walker in his photo and then back away. Or the men in bars who wonder aloud how many of his working parts actually work.

“Gay bars were created to be safe spaces for outsiders,” he points out. “Why not me?”

The flip side, the narrator’s own failures at empathy, are given stage time here, too, and it is Haddad’s propensity to out his own shortcomings that amplifies the drama. He meets a Black man in a gay bar and, during their exchange, utters a racially flippant retort. The man then replies, “If you don’t want people to judge you, why do you get to judge them?”

“Hi, Are You Single?” is rife with such moments of illumination. Occasionally, Haddad engages directly with audience members, including a particularly affecting moment when he summons a man onto the stage; Haddad’s hunger for contact is so profound that he is able to communicate it, even through a mask.

Masking and distancing are distinct disadvantages in some facets of the production: As a camera pans the sparse audience - in this case, Woolly Mammoth employees and friends - a viewer at home looks for their reactions. For the most part, they’re hard to discern, which is a shame, because “Hi, Are You Single” is such a fearless effort at reaching out. You want the performer to know that there are indeed arms prepared to support him.

• • • “Hi, Are You Single?,” written and performed by Ryan J. Haddad. Directed by Laura Savia and Jess McLeod. Lighting, Colin K. Bills; set and costumes, Lawrence E. Moten III; sound, Tosin Olufolabi. About one hour. Through Feb. 28. Tickets, $20.99, available at woollymammoth.net. Captioning and audio description are available.