Get ready to saddle up for the Seattle Book-It Repertory Theatre’s first showing at the Kirkland Performance Center of Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, an adaptation of Tom Robbins’ 1970s countercultural novel.

“Expect to be probably shocked from the content,” said director Russ Banham.

The book was turned into a movie in 1993 and was crucified by critics Gigli-style, but the stage adaptation has resuscitated Blues. The play had a run at Book-It Theatre that produced mixed reactions. Director Russ Banham said avid Robbins fans cheered ­— but not everyone was pleased.

“Some of them were offended, some of them walked out, and I think some of them got it,” he said.

Blues features Sissy Hankshaw, played by Kate Czajkowski, a voluptuous hitchhiker with monumentally sized thumbs and wits to match. The nearly perfect protagonist utilizes her deformity to reach legendary hitchhiker status, embarking on a hip adventure during which she thumbs her way to free love.

She is employed as a model by a drag queen and hygiene products mogul called “The Countess” (Brian Thompson). The Countess sets her up with asthmatic Mohawk artist Julian Gitche (Chris Maslen), and Sissy is disillusioned after marrying him.

Landing a job as a model for the Countess’s feminine hygiene advertisements in New York, Sissy is sent to film a commercial at Rubber Rose Ranch in Idaho, where sexually free cowgirls abound. Among them is lusty lesbian Bonanza Jellybean (Hilary Pickles), with whom Sissy has a liberating rendezvous.

Book-It adapter Jennifer Sue Johnson and Banham transfer the themes of sexuality, drug use, animal rights, religion and body odors from page to front stage without a hitch.

Set in the 1950s and ’70s, the play will send audiences to the cradle of feminist theology, lewd hooliganism and general rowdiness.

Czajkowski and company not only strut their eye-opening stuff on stage, but Johnson and Banham’s adaptation minimizes the lines of the male characters while maximizing the level of estrogen, leaving the audience with the subliminal imprint of a manifesto.

Accompanying will be composer/musician Jo Miller and the fiddler Barbara Lamb to add a lively bluegrass and country folk jive to the show.

Hipster author and cult hero Robbins wrote the book in 1976, and Book-It’s theatrical take makes the story relevant to audiences today. Expect colorful debate after watching this lively show about liberal libido.

Reach contributing writer Julian Estrada at development@dailyuw.com.