What happened to Kelly and his gang is part of Australian history, even if the details, as well as the interpretation, are often disputed. The well-known generally accepted end to their story is this: the bushrangers, clad in armour they made themselves, had their last stand at a siege with police in a hotel in Glenrowan in 1880 where Joe Byrne, Steve Hart and Dan Kelly all died and Ned Kelly was captured, taken to Melbourne, tried and hanged.

But what if it didn't happen quite like that? One of the persistent legends of Kelly lore is that Ned's younger brother Dan survived, fled and lived a long, peaceful life. That's the jumping-off point for Matthew Ryan's play Kelly, the latest exploration of the Kelly saga, a Queensland Theatre Company production. It premiered in 2012 and is now touring.

Steven Rooke is playing Ned in Kelly. Rooke – who at 35 is a decade older than the real Ned when he died – says: "This is an imagined conversation between Dan and Ned on the last night of Ned's life. Dan is supposed to have died in the fire at Glenrowan but a number of people claimed to be Dan Kelly later in their lives."

Apparently newspapers reported Dan Kelly sightings around south-east Queensland in the 1930s and he was said to be everyone from an Ipswich swagman to a Worth Circus sideshow act, to a Dalby horse buyer and a Boer War soldier.

Whether at least one of these claims was true or it was simply a case of old men trying to adorn themselves in a bit of borrowed glory late in life, the play itself is fiction. It sets up the idea that Dan (Kevin Spink), disguised as a priest, visits Ned in the condemned-prisoner's cell for one last meeting.

"It's basically two different versions of events," Rooke says. Dan has come to say goodbye to Ned as he plans to make a new life for himself under an assumed name, and seeks his brother's forgiveness and his blessing before heading to Queensland. But after all they've been through, and what Ned faces now, is that too much to ask?

"One of the questions the play asks is, is Ned a good man? The play doesn't seek to answer that .. but it asks it over and over, giving the different sides of the story, so the audience can make up its own mind."

Rooke says he knew only "the basics" of the Kelly story but after three years of living with the character, in research and performance, he has come to sympathise with him.

He says the police were out to get the Kelly family from the start. Ned's father John was an Irish ex-convict farmer who had been transported to the colonies for stealing and who died when Ned was 12, shortly after a six-month sentence for unlawful possession of a bullock hide.

Members of the the Kelly family were frequently charged with stealing cattle or horses and Ned himself had several run-ins with the law.

'When he was 16, he was convicted of a crime he probably didn't commit – stealing a horse."

Ned had borrowed the horse of a friend, Isaiah "Wild" Wright, that turned out to be stolen. Ned was sentenced to three years in prison. The Kelly saga continued with Ned becoming more deeply embroiled in illegal activities and the police pushback becoming ever harsher. But Ned was, Rooke says, not turned in by people even when rewards were offered and he had plenty of friends and sympathisers and was not regarded as a violent or sadistic man, unlike some bushrangers, even when committing robberies and taking hostages.

In 1878 Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick assaulted Ned's sister Kate and members of her family came to her aid. Ned and Dan fled to avoid arrest for attempted murder and their mother Ellen was imprisoned.

"Fitzpatrick was a dishonest drunk."

The Kellys – with their friends Byrne and Hart – were being hunted and they shot three policemen at Stringybark Creek. There was no going back.

Maybe, Rooke says, there was no escape for Ned and Dan Kelly from their criminal origins, especially given the corruption of the authorities of the time.

Rooke sympathises with Kelly but even he is surprised by how pervasive he is in Australian culture – especially his distinctive armour that weighed more than 40 kilograms and that has contributed heavily to the legend, being instantly recognisable.

"What a terrific image it is."

If it's appropriate that Rooke defends Ned Kelly, then it's equally apt that Anthony Standish is more cynical about him. He plays several roles including the prison guard who banters with Ned – "They give each other a bit of crap" – and in flashbacks, Sergeant Michael Kennedy, one of the policemen shot by Ned Kelly at Stringybark Creek.

Standish says Ned Kelly was "a bit of a grub", an "instigator" of trouble who "fought back" and associated with bad company.

"If he were in modern times, I wouldn't be his friend," he says.

"I don't hold him up as a hero."

He says life was different in the late 19th century and someone in his mid-20s was "more of a man" than someone of the same age now.

"He was a bit of a shit-stirrer from a young age who lived a hard life."

But Standish does see some mitigating factors and reasons why the man is held in high regard by some: his love for, and loyalty to, his family, for example, and the fact – also noted by Rooke – that a royal commission into the Victorian police after the Kelly business ended led to many people being demoted, reprimanded and stood down, suggesting there was rampant corruption in the force and that the Kellys might have been unfairly treated.

He is sceptical about Ned Kelly and also not convinced by the argument that Dan Kelly survived, especially given the number of claimants, but thinks it's fun to explore the notion. And, he notes, while Joe Byrne's body was retrieved intact, the corpses believed to be those of Hart and Dan Kelly were found in armour and burnt beyond recognition. So it's not impossible that one – or even both – of them survived and pulled a switch. Kelly is the latest testament to the enduring fascination and appeal of Ned Kelly, but you can be sure it won't be the last.

Kelly is on at The Playhouse, Canberra Theatre Centre, from June 24 to 27. Tickets $30-$55. Bookings: 62 752700 or canberratheatrecentre.com.au.