MARION — This October and every October, hordes will flock to Salem to visit the city known for its history of trials against — and executions of — numerous people engaged in witchcraft.

A new play at the Marion Art Center asks how much has changed from the 17th-century society that enabled the Salem witch trials to today.

In “Becky Nurse of Salem” written by Sarah Ruhl, Becky Nurse is a Salem resident in 2016 and descendant of Rebecca Nurse, a woman executed in the late 1600s during the witch trials and later fictionalized in Arthur Miller’s 1953 “The Crucible.”

Becky Nurse, played by Sarah Morse, lost her daughter to an opioid overdose and uses pain medication herself while taking care of her depressed granddaughter. Like her distant ancestor Rebecca was a victim of her society, so too is Becky centuries later in the same city.

Brienne Riccio, director of the production premiering Friday, Oct. 11 at the Marion Art Center, said the show “feels very timely and interesting” and is “very unique and very ambitious.”

“Sarah Ruhl is kind of drawing parallels between the modern patriarchy and the former patriarchy,” Riccio said.

There are a couple flashbacks to the 17th-century inhabited by Rebecca Nurse, also played by Sarah Morse, in turn establishing a connection to 2016 Salem, where Becky Nurse, ironically, herself is driven to visit a witch for help.

The show is “a journey for the character of Becky Nurse,” according to Riccio.

“This whole play is really about her transformation of kind of learning that love and connection with people is really what’s going to make her pain get better,” Riccio said. “It’s not going to be pills, it’s not going to be spells. It’s going to be love.”

The show is a dark comedy. Becky Nurse shoulders a great deal of pain and serious subjects are explored, yet a lightness is found throughout the show, according to Riccio.

“It feels really true to life,” Riccio said. “When things are hard, it’s great if we can laugh at them.”

Becky Nurse is “a strong female role,” and the story entails pain turning “into good” with themes of love, connection and positivity, according to Riccio.

“By the end, we get to a different place than where we start, and seeing this character arc could be really powerful for a lot of people,” she said. “There’s a lot of modern issues that people will probably connect with.”

Becky Nurse of Salem premieres Friday, Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. and continues Oct. 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, and 27 at the Marion Art Center. For showtimes and tickets, visit marionartcenter.org/on-stage.