Five years ago, the reality of a dystopian future seemed further away than it does in 2017.

Here we are, a week from opening night of The City and the City, a thriller that follows detective Tyador Borlú from the Extreme Crime Squad as he attempts to solve a murder. Coproduced by Upintheair Theatre and the Only Animal, The City and the City was adapted by playwright Jason Rothery from China Miéville’s award-winning novel of the same name.

Director Kendra Fanconi, who is also the artistic producer of the Only Animal, was first and foremost a fan of murder mysteries.

“Murder mysteries surged in popularity after the world wars, and the sort of theory behind that is that we go, as a culture, through these enormous chaoses and we’re attracted to these mysteries, where the world is disordered by some kind of crime or event that has happened, and a hero detective is able to bring a community together to restore order,” Fanconi tells the Straight over the phone.

Her own need to restore order has never been stronger.

“Right now, particularly with [Donald] Trump’s election, and soon-to-be coronation, we are in a time of profound chaos,” Fanconi says. “I’m binational, so I’m also an American citizen....Like so many of us, I had completely sleepless nights after Trump won. That was in our preproduction period for The City and the City. I thought about ‘What can I do?’ The answer for me was ‘I’m going to do this play.’ ”

Her feelings of present-day dystopia are also connected thematically, Fanconi says, to something important in the play.

“The City and the City takes place in two fictional cities whose borders overlap, but the citizens of these cities have a deep cultural history of not seeing each other,” she explains. “In fact, they unsee each other. They learn it as kids growing up. It’s this metaphor that first drew me into the play, and walking around the city of Vancouver and going, ‘Well, what do I unsee in this city?’ ”

The hero detective tries to see everything. Fanconi calls that choice “a powerful act of engaged citizenry”, adding, “I think in this production, it’s what we wish for our city and our future.”

The City and the City is a technically and creatively ambitious undertaking, too. The set is made up of 500 milk crates, there’s a live soundtrack, and, because the play is interactive and had to be created using audience participation, Fanconi estimates that nearly 300 Vancouverites will have watched segments and whole “stumble-throughs” of the production by opening night.

“How it works for our audience is, it’s the mystery of ‘Who are you and what character are you within the world of the play?’ And then there’s a bigger mystery about how the world works and what’s your greater role,” she says. The audience will watch the action unfold live in the room, but they’ll also receive instructions for clues, actions, and text via audio feeds.

“It’s an adrenaline-filled experience. There’s no way not to be involved,” Fanconi says with a laugh. “Like, if you came to the front door and said, ‘I want to see the show and I don’t want to do anything,’ we’d say, ‘Here’s your money back. This is not that show.’ ”