Lanford Wilson's 1987 Broadway hit, "Burn This," is still an incendiary work, even getting the recent attention of the Pittsburgh police's arson squad.

Investigators were on alert in Lawrenceville last week when posters blaring the play's title were pasted on a few buildings, said David Conrad, who's staging the play at the New Hazlett Theater starting tomorrow.

"Somebody called them and they came out and looked around," he said. "When they learned it was only a play, not a terrorist threat or something, they lost interest."

Unlike the arson squad, Conrad has been interested in "Burn This" since he performed scenes from it at Julliard, where he studied acting.

"I guess the play's always stuck with me since then," said the Pittsburgh native who's earned his acting stripes both on regional stages and sound stages for film and TV. Returning home during a lull in assignments, he was looking for a meaty role that would challenge him.

"After I saw [August Wilson's] 'Joe Turner's Come and Gone' in New York, I knew I wanted to find a play with that sense of passion and hyper-theatricality. 'Burn This' offered that kind of challenge."

Working with Patrick Jordan of barebones, the Pittsburgh theater company, and Peter Kope of Attack Theatre, the dance company, Conrad assembled the independent production, serving as producer, director and leading man. He also contributed to the design of the inflammatory poster and to the set design.

"Burn This" is an atypical Wilson work, one of the few plays he set in New York and one that departs from the typical "poetic realism" of his other well-known plays such as "Talley's Folly" and "The Fifth of July."

"It was a shocking play in its time," said Jack Viertel, who was the play's dramaturg and is now creative director of Jujamcyn Theaters, a New York theater chain. "The language is what we called 'bad,' but it reflects the language of its time. In fact, the play is very much about language."

Viertel added that the appeal of "Burn This" stems from its insistence on the importance of "connecting with your feelings. Alientation was a big theme in those days. It was dangerous to connect to others, there was a fear of connection."

Set in the New York apartment shared by dancer-choreographer Anna and her two gay roommates, Larry (Jordan) and Robby, the play opens as we learn of Robby's accidental death.

Canadian actor Kate Campbell plays Anna, grieving the loss of Robby, also her partner in mounting dance routines.

"I met her [Campbell] at a restaurant in Los Angeles and realized she'd be the perfect Anna," Conrad said. "Anna incarnate. It's an interesting pickup line."

As Anna continues to work on her grief, her boyfriend Burton (Kope), a screenwriter, offers little solace.

The play is Kope's debut as an actor, said Conrad. "Having Peter added a new dimension to the play, a combination of acting and dance," he said. "He allows us to evoke the dance of the play by switching into the movements and back again."

Into this picture bursts Robby's headstrong brother, Pale (Conrad), who arrives unannounced to claim his brother's effects. He acts as a catalyst forcing the other characters including Larry (Jordan), Anna's other roommate, into emotional confrontations.

"Pale is a really singular character," Viertel said. "The monologues Wilson wrote for him are extraordinary. It was a big role for John Malkovich at the time."

"I grew up with guys like Pale," said Conrad, "tough kids I was afraid of. This play dredges up a lot of ghosts for me, a big challenge because it's close to my roots."

"Part of what's going on in the play is the dangerous character of Pale who just jumps into the scene," said Viertel. "Anna's very attracted to that kind of guy. In that way, the play has its roots in 'A Streetcar Named Desire.' "

Conrad compared Pale's character to Hotspur, the impulsive warrior of Shakepeare's "Henry IV." He shared the role with Scott Ferrara in the Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre production in 2005, Conrad's last stage performance in Pittsburgh.

His return, in a play that is close to his actor's sensibility, promises to be one charged with personal notes.