Playwright/actor Michael Brian Ogden

photo courtesy of the Purple Rose Theatre Co.

When local actor/playwright Michael Brian Ogden (“Bleeding Red”) wrote the first drafts of his Irish mob drama “Corktown” — now having its world premiere at the Purple Rose Theatre — it was called “Quiet City Boston.”

But then Guy Sanville, the Rose’s artistic director, suggested that Ogden change the setting from Beantown to Detroit, and the transition was pretty seamless.

“I think it works a million times better taking place in Detroit, just because … there’s a tragic energy (in the play) that feels like the city of Detroit to me,” said Ogden. “Like an undeserved tragedy.”

Focusing on a former special forces ranger (played by Matthew David) who served in Afghanistan, “Corktown” tells the story of an Irish mobster who plans to leave “the life” at the same time that he finds love in the last place he’d expect. (The play is for mature audiences.)

Ogden wrote the earliest drafts of “Corktown” at the same time he wrote the soccer fan comedy “Bleeding Red” (which premiered at the Rose in April 2009), in an undergraduate playwriting class.

“They both came from a similar place, which was, 'I don’t really know anything about this (subject), but I sure wish there were more plays written about the sort of stuff that I’m interested in,'” Ogden explained. “ … It all came from just getting tired of reading ‘A Doll’s House.’ … I wanted to write something that would be fun to be in, and fun to put together, and maybe show an audience something that they weren’t accustomed to seeing in (a theater).”

Along those lines, Ogden thought it would be fun, as an actor, to play a hitman (and thus later found the plays of Martin McDonagh — “The Lietenant of Inishmore,” “The Cripple of Inishmaan,” etc. — to be a revelation). But Odgen notes that “Corktown” quite deliberately has only one foot in reality, so as to not be shackled by history and real events.

“What we’ve attempted to do is to put a graphic novel on stage,” said Sanville. “It’s somewhat noir-ish, and I think Quentin Tarantino would be at home. … (For the audience) it’s going to be like being in the middle of a movie. It’s one thing to see (this kind of action) on a two-dimensional movie screen. But theater is 3D.”

Matthew David and Stacie Hadgikosti in "Corktown"

Photo by Danna Segrest, courtesy of The Purple Rose Theatre Company.

Of course, in recent decades, mob stories — as well as mob clichés — have been shaped and defined by standard-setters like the Godfather movies and “The Sopranos.” So does a young playwright use the storytelling shorthand these cultural touchstones provide to tell a personal, human story, or does he instead attempt to subvert the stereotypes?

In Odgen’s case, the answer may be "both." “I’ve tried to infuse mundane difficulties into (‘Corktown’), so that the assassin trying to do a hit has trouble with the door with a weird handle that everybody else in the world has trouble opening," Ogden said. "And he’s interrupted in the middle of his pre-killing speech. So that’s one of my formulas … for trying not to take it so seriously.”

Sanville, meanwhile, seems to be having the time of his life while figuring out how to stage the play’s high-stakes action. (Recently, the cast used water-filled squibs to experiment with what will eventually be stage blood.)

“I’m telling you, this is one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had at work,” said Sanville. “It’s fun, and it’s so much bigger than life. … The apprentices love this play, and the other day, one of them said, ‘Do you think this is going to be hard for people to watch?’ And I said, ‘Well, certain parts are. But that’s OK. They won’t be thinking about their laundry.’”