Boiler room

Everyday people can do genuinely terrifying, evil things. You don’t have to be a tragic character of Shakespearean proportions to kill someone. That’s the underlying idea behind Bash, a trio of one-act confessional monologues by Neil LaBute, who grew up Mormon in Spokane before embarking on a career as writer/director of several dark plays and films.

LaBute plays off Greek myths in two of these short plays, but he also sprinkles his script with little pop culture references that make his characters unmistakably Middle American. The script is skillfully written, but quite scary.

In this production, the actors are seated almost continuously, making careful use of hand gestures, eye contact and a few everyday objects. In the first play, actors Martin Lain and Beth Edwards present a college-age couple on a trip to New York, during which the young man and his buddies almost arbitrarily go gay bashing. Lain’s bright, matter-of-fact description is bone chilling. (Both actors speak, but they’re talking to the audience, not each other.)

In the second piece, Jon Croke portrays a mild-mannered, mid-level corporation man in danger of being laid off; he flashes on the realization that a personal tragedy might prompt the boss to drop the axe on someone else.

The concluding piece is “Medea Redux.” Edwards returns as a woman who was romanced, made pregnant, and then abandoned by a teacher while in junior high. As the title suggests, she ultimately gets back at the man with a calculated, gruesome revenge.

All three actors have been training with the Actors Workshop for some time; in this show, they deliver very nearly professional work in demanding roles. Director Anthony D’Juan keeps you glued to these people’s stories, which are both horrible and somehow believable. This sparely produced, low-budget show is not for the easily upset or those in need of solace. But if you can handle the heavy subject matter, it’s an outstanding effort from this small local company.