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In the new play “Rift, or White Lies,” two brothers separated by incarceration and ideology attempt to find common ground. One, which the script names “Inside Brother,” joined a white supremacist gang while in prison serving a life sentence for murder. “Outside Brother” is a progressive liberal novelist and professor.

To narrow the gaping rift between them, they decide to try something they have never done before: listen to one another patiently and honestly, without attempting to change the other’s worldview.

“We all got the right to speak our mind,” says Inside Brother.

“Right, but hate speech — that’s different,” Outside Brother replies. “Just because you have the right to say it doesn’t make it the right thing to say.”

“But if you really believe in the freedom of speech, hate is a part of that.”

The two brothers are entrenched in their own perspectives, but playwright Gabriel Jason Dean adds another layer of complexity by asking actors Jered McLenigan and Matteo Scammell to switch roles every night. The woke Outside Brother becomes the supremacist Inside Brother, and vice versa, then back again the next night — for 22 performances and twice on Saturdays.

“It’s been interesting to watch them learn from each other and have to practice radical empathy,” Dean said. “Matteo’s a very external actor. Jared’s a very internal actor. When you see Matteo perform Inside Brother you see this really theatrical version of him. When you see Jared perform him, it’s much more tortured.”

“Rift” begins previews April 4 at The Drake, with opening night April 11. It runs until April 27.

Similar to civic dialogue efforts by community groups, including WHYY, to bring together people with opposing viewpoints to arrive at a civil understanding rather than agreement, “Rift” pits two radically opposing people with almost nothing in common, save the one powerfully complex bond of their brotherhood.

“It’s not all pretty,” said director Seth Rozin. “It’s not all ‘Pollyanna’ at the end where everybody’s happy, and the person who thought offensive things doesn’t anymore and the person who tried to help them feels triumphant.”

“But it does show the grittiness of real human interaction. How two people, if they really listen and try to feel where the other person is coming from, can come to a new place of understanding,” he said.

“Rift” is loosely based on Dean’s relationship with his own brother who, like Inside Brother, embraced white supremacist ideology while in prison.

“I wrote the first lines toward this play 21 years ago and I’ve been trying to figure out a way to crack this story,” Dean said. “I started it as — I wouldn’t have described it this way then, but as therapy. Once I realized I was a writer, well, maybe there’s a story here.”

Dean said he had cut off all contact with his brother for many years after his brother told him he joined a white supremacist gang, despite his brother repeatedly reaching out to Dean. Once Dean decided it would be worthwhile to have his brother back in his life, the two had to discover a way to make that work.

“That process of sitting in the room and listening to each other and really endeavoring to understand, even though it was really tough for both of us, it made me practice walking in someone else’s shoes in a way that I’d never done before,” he said. “Even though I’m a theater artist. Like, empathy is our currency.”

It took almost two decades for Dean to turn his experience with his brother into a script. What cracked the story open for him was to instruct the actors to switch roles.

“I saw this play as a ritual,” he said. “It was the snake eating its own tail. Every night it would reset itself.”

For the actors, switching each other’s roles unlocks their performances.

“It’s the keystone of the whole experiment,” said Scammell, who has to keep both characters in his bones for the three-week run. “I always just feel like I’m advocating for my character.”

“Inside Brother really loves and needs Outside Brother. It feels like Outside Brother’s need is a little self-serving at times,” he said. “You could say the same thing for Inside Brother too, but he’s charming. He’s humorous. He owns who he is. He says things that are explosive and inflammatory and offensive that is full-throated.”

“Rift” is experiencing a rolling world premiere across the country. It had its first run last year at Luna Stage in West Orange, New Jersey, which commissioned the work, but due to logistics of production and finalizing the script, the actors in that show did not switch roles. The run at InterAct is the second iteration of the play and the first with switched roles. A week after it opens in Philadelphia, “Rift” will run simultaneously at Amphibian Stage in Fort Worth, Texas, also with switched roles.