photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Abby Ilardi plays Lizzie Borden in Theatre Lawrence's "LIZZIE: The Rock Musical."

If the infamous Borden murders happened today, they’d likely be solved in about 15 minutes.

DNA, blood splatter, doorbell cameras, geofencing — all the crime-fighting evidence that wasn’t available to detectives in 1892 in Fall River, Massachusetts — would coalesce quickly into a tidy package for prosecutors to present to a jury.

And the jury? It for sure wouldn’t be 12 men who thought, as Lizzie Borden’s jurors did, that a respectable “lady” couldn’t possibly muster the physical strength to slaughter two people with a hatchet.

That quaint variety of sexism died long ago, even as other varieties remained.

Women weren’t allowed to serve on juries in Massachusetts until 1950, but if they were, they might have acquitted Borden for different reasons — not because they found her frail but because they found her furious.

“LIZZIE: The Rock Musical,” opening for a three-night run on Thursday at Theatre Lawrence, taps into that relatable fury and the public’s abiding fascination with the 134-year-old murder case.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Frankie Haynes (Alice Russell), from left, Abby Ilardi (Lizzie Borden), Amanda Thomas McCoy (Emma Borden) and Alyssa Watson (Bridget Sullivan/Maggie) are pictured in a promotional still for Theatre Lawrence’s “LIZZIE: The Rock Musical.”

“It’s such a compelling mystery of what really happened,” says Lavinia Roberts, the director of the all-woman show. “It’s definitely a show for folks who are into true crime” – especially the genre that features fed-up women.

The Borden case, in which the 32-year-old “spinster” Lizzie was charged with ax-murdering her father and stepmother, has always seemed less of a whodunit than a why- or how-dunit.

The rock musical is especially focused on a possible “why.”

Theater-goers won’t see much of the “how.” The gore that’s center-stage in most retellings of the bloody murders — like in Netflix’s recent “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” or even 1975’s “The Legend of Lizzie Borden” starring Elizabeth Montgomery of “Bewitched” fame — will be absent here.

In its place will be a more profound sort of horror, Roberts says: the horror of oppression and abuse, of feeling helpless and trapped in a world where women have few rights and little personal autonomy.

It’s the horror of a pressure cooker — “the horror that symbolizes something about human nature” and the way people treat one another, Roberts says.

But why a rock musical?

Alan Stevens Hewitt and Tim Maner, the creators of the show, which premiered in New York in 2009, noted that rock ‘n’ roll was one of the few areas where it’s socially acceptable for women to express anger.

photo by: Theatre Lawrence

Amanda Thomas McCoy plays Emma Borden in Theatre Lawrence’s “LIZZIE: The Rock Musical.”

Transplanting that permissible rage to Victorian New England gives the four female characters — Lizzie, her sister, a maid and a queer love interest — a voice that they lacked in their own time.

“It’s very Joan Jett and Riot Grrrl,” Roberts says — a vibe that’s amplified by having a live band on stage and by the costuming, which features a Victorian silhouette of mutton sleeves and restrictive waistlines that transforms into denim, leather and other textures of rock ‘n’ roll.

“It becomes more and more liberated throughout the show,” Roberts says.

While dark themes abound in the production, complete with gothic lighting, there’s also a surprising amount of humor, Roberts says, and — as with any rock concert — a lot of rebellious joy.

The show, recommended for ages 16 and up, is not part of the regular season lineup. It opens Thursday at Theatre Lawrence, 4660 Bauer Farm Drive, and runs through Oct. 24. For information about tickets, call 785-843-SHOW (7469) or go online at theatrelawrence.com.

The performance on Thursday will feature a pre-show talk (with limited seating) at 6:45 p.m. by Rachel McCarthy James, the author of “Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder.”