Ridley Scott’s 1982 “Blade Runner” is a stylish action movie starring Harrison Ford as Deckard, a bounty hunter in pursuit of coolly attractive androids. Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” the 1968 book it’s based on, is a very different novel of ideas, at its essence about an unhappily married man.

In a twist that sounds straight out of the story itself, the movie has become so popular that many fans don’t realize that the imitation is not the original. Edward Einhorn’s new stage adaptation, which imagines a future populated by humans and androids difficult to distinguish from one another, aims to reclaim the spirit of the book. It’s an act of fan love but also dramatically shrewd, since a downtown play is a better forum than a Hollywood blockbuster for a grim meditation on religion, consumerism and what it means to be human.

Set in the wake of environmental disaster, the noirlike plot centers on Deckard (Alex Emanuel), who tracks down androids, tests their humanity with an empathy test and, if they fail, destroys them. The emphasis here is not on the action but on its implications. Since the newer models are so advanced, the fakes can seem more empathetic than Deckard himself. And the question of his own humanity hangs over the entire show like one of the ear-shaped screens of this production.

The humans left on Earth (they have been encouraged to colonize other planets) either worship a Christlike leader on television or a cheerier alternative named Buster Friendly, played silkily by the downtown impresario Trav S.D. The difference, however, between the savior who suffers for your sins and the one who charms is not as great as it seems.