Theatre / Stages of Empathy, directed by Sammy Moynihan. At Ralph Wilson Theatre. Until August 1. Reviewed by ALANNA MACLEAN.

Stages of Empathy isn’t your usual style of performance. It starts off like a piece of theatre, but soon becomes a kind of drama workshop where the audience is encouraged to comment and participate.

But then Rebus Theatre isn’t your usual kind of theatre group, using as it does the inspiration of August Boal’s Forum Theatre.

It is the performers who have devised the situation and the scenes and the cast can vary. Thursday night’s cast certainly understood the challenges.

CEO Terry (Krystie Vicencio) is organising an event where artist Jordan (Mark Polhuis) will hopefully be a primary focus. But last year at the same event he had a melt down and Terry is becoming reluctant to have him participate, no matter how good his art is.

Lee, her assistant, flutters around trying to organise the event with the laid back Alex (Zander Hanmer-Woods, who also plays Sam).

In the second scene the lights and the noisy atmosphere disturb Jordan greatly and it looks like Terry will not get the showcase her organisation needs for funding and publicity purposes.

Director Sammy Moynihan stops the action and involves the audience directly. People are invited to step in and change what is happening. Variations are tried and issues are tested.

Is Terry simply an inflexible CEO? How might it be possible to accommodate Jordan’s sensitivity to sound and light so that he can function? How can Lee be brought to calm down and stop obsessively clicking a pen? What are the underlying tensions, burdens and difficulties that each is coping with? How could a less inflexible CEO show a better awareness of better management?

Some members of the audience contribute verbally. Others accept Moynihan’s challenge to bravely step in (or in one case, wheel in) and alter action and outcome. The issues become clearer as variant scenes are played out.

This show may be just about finished its short season, but it is funded to perform for any organisation working with the community and would be guaranteed to stir up the thinking.