Morgan Le Fay (Jennifer Smith) tries to trick young Arthur (Kellen Freeman) in the On Broadway Thespians production of “King Arthur and the Lords of Avalon,” written by Gonzalez. World Photo by Lou Sennick

NORTH BEND — The legend of King Arthur is a complicated thing.

Written in incremental tales by dozens of authors over hundreds of years, there isn’t a definitive storyline of Arthur’s life — just lots of little pieces with overlapping characters who often play different roles depending on the source.

That’s what North Bend director Michael Gonzalez found when he set out to find a King Arthur play to stage with On Broadway Thespians. None of the existing scripts offered the comprehensive story he wanted, and all left out more than he could accept.

So he decided to write his own version of the legend: “King Arthur and the Lords of Avalon,” which premieres Friday, Aug. 8, at Pony Village Mall in North Bend, in the space across from Sears.

“There’s so much in there,” Gonzalez said of the mythology. “I just tried to fit as much as I could.”

The result, after three years of work, was an epic that was certainly thorough. The only problem with Gonzalez’s initial script was that it would have taken nearly six hours to perform. Since rehearsals began, he’s cut more than 40 percent of his material, sacrificing a lot of detail he wanted to include, to get it down to three hours.

But inclusiveness wasn’t Gonzalez’s only goal for the play.

“I really wanted something grounded in some sense of reality,” Gonzalez said. “I tried to bring a humane struggle to these iconic, mythical characters. … The driving thing was to make these characters more real. They seemed so bland and bulletproof.”

Gonzalez said his play grew out of an earlier attempt that focused on how greed corrupted four central characters. In his current one, most of the good guys turn bad — or at least complicated — and a few of the bad ones turn good.

It can be difficult to untangle the story, especially since so much was cut, but it’s clear the characters left standing are humans, not legends. The play builds on familiar and more obscure pieces of Arthur’s mythology and evolves into something ultimately original. Gonzalez and his cast take a lot of pride in this work, which some of them compared to “Star Wars” for its epic struggle between good and evil.

Viewers, however, may want some help with the untangling.

In the year 465, the wizard Merlyn (Alan Spjut) delivers a baby boy to a couple in southwestern Britain. For 13 years, Arthur (Kellen Freeman) lives with the adoptive parents, Ector (Kevin Goss) and Edine (Gail Reynolds), and a young brother, Kay (Jonathan Reynolds), until fate intervenes.

Edine knows it’s coming but tries to delay it, warning Arthur to stay away from Merlyn, who secretly teaches him. A more pressing danger proves to be the Knights Templar (Joe Vos, James Young), who kill his family, though Arthur escapes.

Pulling a magical sword out of a stone makes Arthur a king, but one of many in a fractious land where no ruler’s domain extends beyond his ability to protect it. Arthur’s Britain is essentially a Hobbesian state of nature without any useful order.

At 21, Arthur (Gonzalez) has formulated a plan to resolve that problem, which keeps his people and those surrounding in continuous suffering. He wants to establish a civil society, so he invites the area’s kings and queens to a summit, where he hopes to obtain consent of the would-be governed. Promising freedom and equality, Arthur calls his vision Camelot.

All agree except King Lot (Goss) of Orchne, who threatens Arthur, injures his best friend, Lancelot (CJ Reynaud), and boasts of a master with unimaginable power, before being killed by the knight Tristan (Christopher Reynolds).

One of the visiting royals, Queen Morgan Le Fay (Jennifer Smith), lures Arthur outside for a tryst in some nearby hay.

“You will find I am not a proper woman,” she tells him.

Indeed not — unbeknownst to Arthur, Morgan is his half sister.

Meanwhile, her handmaiden Elaine (Mindy Freeman) attends to the wounded Lancelot, developing a huge crush. He doesn’t feel the same, he confides to Arthur, whom he calls the perfect wife, as they discuss whether either will ever find someone.

Shortly thereafter, they meet their Yoko: Guinevere (Desirea Owens), who comes to the castle for protection while she recuperates from an injury. It’s a long enough stay for her to land Arthur’s affections — and Lancelot’s, too, as Tristan and Bors (Vos) observe.

A box left behind by Lot holds a mystery for Arthur and Merlyn concerning the power Lot spoke of, which is contained in three relics connected to the crucifixion of Jesus. After a scouting mission, Merlyn brings Arthur through a temple to a cave to meet the mystical Maiden of the Lake (Gail Reynolds), who reveals the secrets of the relics.

Arthur’s quest keeps him away from Camelot for months, allowing trouble to develop in his absence. Morgan sends Lancelot on a quest of his own to find a secret about his past that will turn him against Arthur. Meanwhile, she plots a coup to install her son by Arthur, Mordred (Kellen Freeman) on the throne.

It’s been less than a year since Mordred was conceived, but thanks to the same magic that rapidly ages soap opera children, he’s already entering his teens.

Much more lies ahead as the search for the relics influences Arthur and his friends in unexpected ways.

The cast also includes Stephen Reynolds and Serge Vasquez.

The play runs through Aug. 17. Performances are at 7 p.m. Fridays and at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets are $10, $7 for children and $8 on Sundays. An opening night gala fundraiser at 6 p.m. costs $15.