The Blackbird Theatre is currently preparing for the world premiere of company founder Barton Bund’s musical, “Patty Hearst.” But Bund first started work on the show in a moment of frustration in 2004, when the country re-elected George W. Bush as president.

“I wasn’t going to go out kidnapping or murdering people,” said Bund. “But I came to understand then how people could get so worked up and angry. … I wasn’t about to go out and bomb things, but I would write about it.”

And given the number of recent headlines focused on the Hutaree Militia, as well as the Tea Party movement, anger that’s aimed at the American government remains a timely issue, to say the least.

Patty Hearst’s story, of course, is a highly complicated chapter of American history. Hearst — granddaughter of the enormously wealthy publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst — was kidnapped in 1974, when she was 19 years old, by members of a left-wing urban guerrilla group called the Symbionese Liberation Army. The group initially demanded the release of several jailed SLA members, but when that failed, the ransom evolved into one that required Hearst’s family to distribute food to needy families in California (at an estimated cost of $400 million). Hearst’s father arranged for a food donation worth $6 million, but Patty wasn’t released, and two months after her capture, she declared, via audiotape, that she’d become part of the SLA.

Hearst thus helped SLA members rob a San Francisco bank, among other crimes; but after the police found and arrested her the following year, Hearst’s attorney, F. Lee Bailey, argued that Hearst had been brainwashed by the SLA, as well as physically and sexually abused.

“There are all these contradictions within (Hearst’s) story, … but we still have to honor her story,” said Bund. “And there’s a freedom within that … for the actors. Things aren’t so locked down. We have the facts, but we’re still exploring them, and still figuring out what would drive a person to this. I’ve told the cast, ‘Don’t try to figure out who you are. We’re just going to play these moments, feel it out, and do the best we can.’ But we all feel a different way about this story after every rehearsal.”

Indeed, Bund and his cast have strived, in the musical, not to pass judgment.

“I’m not condoning what the SLA did — there were real victims, and they did terrible things — but Patty couldn’t have made this conversion if she didn’t develop positive relationships with certain individuals in the group,” said Bund. “I didn’t want to go too far beyond her story, and I didn’t want to interpret — that didn’t seem like an honest way of doing this. … But her description of some of the folks that she was with on the ground — they were decent.”

According to Bund, many of SLA’s members were white suburban kids who felt disillusioned because of the Vietnam War and the nation’s poor economy. And while the SLA’s demand for food aid to needy families was an example of how the group had some laudable goals, these ambitions were perverted by way of SLA’s violence.

“The group had some good intentions,” said Bund. “But their methodology, being militant and murderous, took away from that mission.”

The musical also explores the way the government responded — shooting at, and burning down, a house where six SLA members were hiding — and the circus-like nature of Hearst’s trial.

“Musicals are a great way to tell a historical drama, especially because there’s so much going on psychologically in this story,” said Bund. “Music gets certain things across more efficiently than dialogue. In straight plays, you have characters talking things out for two hours to arrive at a certain point, while you can arrive at that same point in a song in about two minutes.”

Bund describes “Hearst”’s score, which he also wrote, as including folk songs as well as the rock-funk that’s reminiscent of Hearst’s era. But the show's candid exploration of Hearst’s story means that it’s definitely not a show for kids.

“Everything that happens in the show comes out of her court testimony, or her autobiography, or the news stories of the time,” said Bund. “Whenever I tried to improve upon the story, or condense it in some way — it was just too crazy for that.”

Jenn McKee is the entertainment digital journalist for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at jennmckee@annarbor.com or 734-623-2546, and follow her on Twitter @jennmckee.