Bash yes it’s a lower case b, don’t go calling the copy editor, that is the title and it is a series of three one acts by the renown playwright Neil LaBute. LaBute has come to be known for extraordinarily well written works about more than difficult subjects and this evening will not disappoint die hard LaBute fans.

Bash means a swell party, or to take and smash up-side someone’s head and LaBute can do both and does. We are told that LaBute was a member of the Mormon Church and became disaffected because he wrote these plays. The works were inspired by the tragedies of Susan Smith killing her two young sons; of Matthew Shephard being beaten to death because he was Gay; and of Scott Peterson strangling his wife and unborn son. It is deep and depressing stuff and if that is not for you even the marvelous acting will not save the evening, especially in a jewel box theater where you are up close and personal for all the tale telling.

The first piece is Medea Redux , so you know this is the one where the mom kills the kids, and even though you are aware that this is where the story goes, you can not help but be taken in by the words and acting prowess of Chelsea Lagos. As an aside, her name sound like one of those games you play as a kid, name of your first pet and the city where you grew up, put those together and you have your acting name. But the girl can act. She holds a room with a monologue that is nearly 40 minutes. And we all believe she is being interrogated and finally spills the story out at the tiny table with a soda can and a pack of cigs as her only props.

The next piece is Iphigenia in Oram and it stars Luke Rosen as the young husband who fears being fired from his job so he . . . well that would give away the plot. His story is equally chilling but the acting is less absorbing and hence the monologue drags.

The third piece offers the two actors a chance to work together in A Gaggle of Saints. This is a work where a young couple head off from college for a weekend of parties at the Plaza Hotel. During the festivities the man strays into the park with some friends and again this is censored as it would unravel the plot, alas.

Again the actors are more than fine, the small theater is perfect for the pieces and they are deftly directed by Robert Knopf, however a viewer must be ready to revisit the horrors of the news cycle from an imagined insider’s view and not all theater goers are ready for such brutality told in frank dispassionate terms.


bash opens Sept 9 for an open run
Produced by Tom Noonan and Eastcheap Rep
64 East Fourth Street Between Bowery and Second Avenue
Performances at Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm
Admission $20
Tickets http://www.smartix.com/show.aspx?showcode=BAS6