If something is missing from “H2O,” the show at Theater on the Lake this week, it certainly isn’t water.

This June 2 – 6 revival of the Neo-Futurists’ 2001 production combines music, slides, pantomime and generous amounts of water to create theater almost completely without words. The result is a poignant parody of love, silent except for the eclectic soundtrack of ’40s and ’50s love songs and a few short onstage conversations.

Theater on the Lake, now in its 51st season, sits on the shore of Lake Michigan. Nestled between the lapping waves and the bustle of Lincoln Park Zoo, the grounds present a panoramic view of the downtown skyline.

The theater itself is set within a screened-in pavilion, but even in the darkness of the Neo-Futurists’ production, you can sense the lake just beyond the walls.

And the show? “H2O” would be dripping wet even if it was performed 1,000 miles from the nearest body of water.

“We don’t try to create any illusion for the audience — we’re really on stage throwing water around,” said Greg Allen, the show’s writer and the Neo-Futurists’ founder and artistic director.

Allen plays the role of narrator, mediator and server, replacing Neo-Futurist Michelle Dawson who recently left Chicago.

He is joined on stage by only the two actors who play the central couple — as well as the occasional audience member.

This isn’t theater in the conventional sense, Allen said. When the actors make a confessional speech to the audience, they are speaking frankly about their own romantic pasts.

This honesty and audience participation contribute to the Neo-Futurists’ working aesthetic of bringing “as much actual life on stage as possible.” In Allen’s words, their brand of experimental theater features “the perfect meld of highfalutin theory and more accessibility.”

Allen said the company opted for the grace of simplicity, depending more upon water-drenched, emotional dance-mime rather than spoken word.

“I always was a firm believer in talking everything out,” Allen said. “But what if talking was part of the problem, not the solution?”

The Neo-Futurists, the ensemble behind Theater on the Lake, saw their first stage-lights in 1988 with the birth of their year-round, constantly changing show, “Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind.” For this hit, the troupe asks the audience to determine the order of 30 short plays performed frantically in the show’s 60-minute run time.

The actors order pizza whenever the show nets a sellout crowd. The 500 plus pizzas ordered since 1988 attest to the audiences’ approval.