In the beginning there is a ladder, a table with two glasses of water, and a chair. And then there is the brown envelope.

And that’s almost all I can tell you about what unfolds for the hour (or so) long White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, presented here by Theatre Projects Manitoba. Because that brown envelope, sealed at the start of the show, contains the play’s script.

And the lone actor performing the piece has never read it.

There is no director, no set beyond what I’ve mentioned, and — most importantly — no rehearsal process. The actor performing the monologue is instructed to do no research about the play, just to simply to show up and read what’s contained in the envelope.

The script therein is by Iranian playwright Nassim Soleimanpour. He was unable to leave his home country when he wrote White Rabbit, Red Rabbit in 2010 because his refusal to serve in the military disqualified him from obtaining a passport.

So instead, Soleimanpour wrote this monologue, in which a different actor plays him in each performance — with a cold reading of the script.

In the process, Soleimanpour leaves his homeland, in a sense, And a fresh, exhilarating piece of theatre is created in every performance.

Of course, that necessitates a full cast change every night and over the run of the production, a total of 17 performers, including Sarah Constible, Ian Ross, performance artist Shawna Dempsey, improviser Stephen Sim, Cercle Moliere artistic director Genevieve Pelletier (who will perform in French), and Arne MacPherson take on the challenge.

The opening night performance was handled by the always-reliable Gordon Tanner, who certainly seemed to have followed the instructions of not reading the play, but delivered a smooth, engaging performance.

Provocative questions, delightfully funny

While I won’t tell you what the play’s about, I will say it raises provocative questions about conformity, oppression, and social responsibility. It is intellectually stimulating, sometimes perplexing, and sometimes uncomfortable viewing.

It’s also delightfully funny because of the spontaneity of watching an actor react to something he’s reading the first time, because of what Soleimanpour asks that actor to do, unrehearsed, and because of Soleimanpour’s casual but witty turn of phrase (no mean feat given this is his first play written in English).

I will also say its effect is both thrilling and unnerving. Live theatre is, at the best of times, a high-wire act — anything could, theoretically, happen. But there’s usually the sense for the audience that someone’s in charge and knows where we’re going.

Here, that confidence is removed. The only person who knows where this is heading is a playwright in Iran.

So who’s really in charge? Who’s responsible for what unfolds? Is it Soleimanpour? The actor? The audience?

And whose voice are we truly hearing — the playwright’s? The actor’s? Neither?

Perhaps, as Soleimanpour suggests, the point is not “knowing,” but “possibility.” The only certainty is that the show you see will be different from the show I saw.

But if you have the slightest sense of theatrical adventure, this Rabbit is well worth chasing.

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit runs at the Rachel Browne Theatre until Jan. 18.