THE wounds that never heal after hideous events such as the Boston Marathon bombing or the mass shootings at Utoya Island, in Norway, are too painful to contemplate.

What happens in the aftermath? How does a community cope?

For Scottish playwright David Greig, the near unimaginable dark days after a sudden, violent attack are the focus of his latest work, the touching, thought-provoking and even at times funny, The Events.

It's the story of church minister Claire, played by Neve McIntosh, who has witnessed the killing of members of her choir.

The play follows her attempt to understand what happened to her and the boy who perpetrated the crime, played by Rudi Dharmalingam.

"How do you carry on after such things?" asks David.

"It explores all of those ideas but it is mostly about the quest to understand and whether that is even possible.

"These things happen a lot and I find myself reading page after page of newspapers, all saying this is because of Islamic fundamentalism or this was because of male violence or American imperialism or gun control, and I found myself feeling this deep unsatisfaction that I couldn't get to the bottom of it.

"I wanted to investigate that and when I have that question I usually write a play."

Produced by ATC (Actors Touring Company), the play is directed by Ramin Gray, a co-creator with David. It has already received rave reviews at the Edinburgh Fringe.

In contrast, the production was surrounded in controversy before it opened when David came in for criticism for visiting Norway to research the play.

"It was the wrong headline and unfortunately if people read the name of a notorious killer they maybe think you are going to try to glamorise them and they don't want that," says David.

"The play is going to Norway later so the Norwegians will get a chance to see it and I hope they will respond to it with the same emotional response we have had here. I'm sure it will be deeper but I don't expect it to be anger, I expect it to be something different."

A focal point of the play is a choir and David tries to use different singers each night from the local area. At the Tron, The Arches Community Choir, Sirens of Titan and Voicebeat are among those who will take turns. With up to another 25 people on stage, it promises to create a powerful performance.

"The choirs have done some workshops in advance and know the music. They have a rehearsal where they understand a little bit about what's going to happen," says David, without trying to give away too much of the storyline.

"They are usually experiencing it for the first time. So the audience is watching the performance but part of what they are watching is the experience the choir are having and that is part of the show."

IN Edinburgh, classical choirs and community choirs took part, as well as an American choir from the same area as the tragic Newtown shootings in Connecticut last December.

When the play moves to the Young Vic in London in October, gospel choirs and male-voice choirs have been pencilled in.

"Their presence is a really important part of the show," says David. "Some of the shows, surprisingly you might think given the context, are quite funny and sometimes choirs respond to that, some choirs get very emotional and others don't and that's interesting.

"One thing that has really pleased me is that all the choirs have really enjoyed doing it. I think the audience gets a chance to look at a group of people on stage and as the story goes on they become the community and that allows them to understand the play with a little bit more depth."

It's all a far cry from David's other recent work. He wrote The Events while his stage version of Roald Dahl's Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, playing in London's West End, was rehearsing.

The next step, in a career that has ranged from Dunsinane to The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart, is a film script.

"It's about a lad from Britain who in the 1980s gets invited to a Soviet holiday camp and has a comic, falling in love with a Russian girl," he says. "It's Gregory's Girl crossed with Letter to Brezhnev."

l The Events, Tron Theatre, Glasgow, September 17-21 www.tron.co.uk