Long before various societies around the world constructed social taboos around love with someone of your own gender, there was — love with someone of your own gender.

That might sound silly to say, but it bears remembering that LGBTQ folks were here long before anyone invented a system of “morality” that said they shouldn’t be. And when you consider that many of those strict social codes found slavery to be an acceptable economic engine, you have to marvel at the ethical gymnastics involved.

When St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre commissioned playwright Donja R. Love to write a new work for the company, they knew that they wanted love to be its focus. But Love also knew that they wanted to celebrate the resilience of those who are both Black and gay, and they’ve succeeded admirably with their new play, “When We Are Found,” which premiered this past weekend at Penumbra.

This very simply staged work is a fable both fantastical and grippingly real. Gracefully staged by director Lamar Perry and featuring the captivating choreography of Leslie Parker, it’s a two-man show about a quest full of tests and a love so intense, it might just span an ocean. Sometimes abstract, other times jarringly realistic, it’s a 75-minute piece that feels something like a story being engagingly spun beside an ancient campfire.

In its joyous opening, we’re introduced to our two lovers as they execute an ebullient dance, a pas de deux that’s part game of tag and part beauteous ballet. The actor/dancers, Anthony Adu and Halin Moss, radiate a sense of liberation and laughter as they celebrate this devoted partnership. It’s a scene that feels like a welcome addition to a recent trend toward bringing Black joy to our area stages and a bit of balance to the more commonly found tales of trauma and tragedy.

Yet there’s some of that afoot as well, for these two lovers are dancing on Africa’s west coast and Adu’s character is soon swept into slavery. With this, Moss becomes a man driven, obsessed with being reunited with his partner and willing to paddle across an ocean to find him. Along the way, he meets a trickster of a talking fish, a seductive moon and a wise sun, all anthropomorphized by Adu and costumed in some imaginative attire by Gregory Horton.

While Moss is given a very challenging task in keeping the seeker’s desperation at relatively fever pitch for 75 minutes, he makes it all feel very genuine. And Adu exudes a captivating confidence that not only makes each character seem comfortable in their own skin, but convincingly proclaims, “I’m sexy and I know it.”

But they’re not the only stars of “When We Are Found”: Miko Simmons has created projections so vivid and beautiful that they feel like a third character. From a storm-swept sea to a star-filled sky to haunting abstractions, Simmons teams with lighting designer Sammy Webster to inform this odyssey with evocative backdrops.

After all of these episodes about the power of love and sometimes painfully accrued wisdom, a contemporary epilogue reminds us that the term “gay” arose partially from the sense of liberation achieved by stepping from the shadows and becoming your unapologetic self. And that’s something anyone should be able to celebrate.