Here’s a hypothetical question for you: would you give a kidney to a complete stranger? What about your father? What about a father who has been a stranger your whole life?

This is the situation that faces Jason (Jesse Wheeler) in Downstage’s latest production, In a World Created by a Drunken God (co-produced with Lethbridge’s New West Theatre). The play was written by Ojibway writer Drew Hayden Taylor, and was a finalist for a 2006 Governor General’s Award for drama. Drunken God asks big questions, eschews easy answers and draws the audience into a deeply human story.

“What’s beautiful about the script is that all of the questions come to light through something that’s incredibly personal, and something that I think everyone connects to very deeply,” says Downstage artistic director Simon Mallett. “Our mandate is to do politically and socially engaged work, but we tend to do that by showing wonderful personal stories and relationships onstage.”

Jason, half-Caucasian and half-native, is in the midst of packing up his apartment to move back to his childhood reserve when he’s interrupted by his half-brother, Harry (Phil Fulton). Harry — a white American — only recently found out he had a secret Canadian sibling, and has come to find out if this forgotten offspring is compatible to donate a life-saving kidney to their father.

The central conflict in this more-or-less real-time, single-set play raises questions of identity and relationships — familial, social, native and non-native, Canadian and American, and more. Even without the whole kidney transplant wrench-in-the-gears, Jason (seen sporting a T-shirt that says “Keeping it Riel”) must grapple with the idea that he is not who he thought he was for the first 30 years of his life.

“What’s nice about the play is that it explores questions of identity and how either an acceptance or a rejection of who you are and where you came from forms us as people,” says Mallett.

Despite the tough dilemmas both characters face, the play is far from grim.

When Jason finds out about the white half of his family, “there’s a wonderful sense of sarcasm that comes out and allows the audience to laugh at the predicament while being engaged on a very deep and personal level,” says Mallett.

And humour aside, Drunken God may take you somewhere unexpected.

“It’s very provocative in terms of the questions it will raise for people.”

Drunken God is also the first of many Downstage productions that will feature a post-play forum, allowing audiences to not only meet members of the artistic team, but discuss the content of the play itself.

“Promoting dialogue and conversation is part of our mandate,” says Mallett, “and so we’re looking for ways to enhance an audience’s ability to engage in that conversation — not only a conversation between audience and artist, but between audience and audience.”