By Kenney Kost/ne news editor

The latest NE Campus theater production deals with themes of love, revenge and redemption in Bash: Latter Day Plays.

Written by Neil LaBute, Bash is a dark series of three one-act plays that will run Oct. 3-6.

The first act, “Iphigenia in Orem,” deals with a man who makes a major sacrifice to achieve a higher standard of living. The second act, “A Gaggle of Saints” deals with a young couple who recounts a night out in New York City when the male is involved in a murder and attempts to hide it from his female companion the next morning at breakfast.

Act three, “Madea Redux,” involves a young mother who seeks revenge against a former lover, her junior high teacher, who impregnated her while she was a student of his. Years later, she is still very much in love with the man and believes her act will cause him great pain.

“Each act has its own theme, but, overall, the characters are unrepentant. In a strange way, it’s about redemption,” said director Stephen Thomas, NE associate professor of drama. “Nobody apologizes in this play. They have all sacrificed something in their lives in order to get to something better.”

Acts one and three involve one actor each, and act two involves two actors. The setting is intimate, and each act plays out similar to a confessional with the audience on stage for the duration.

“It’s definitely saying something about the universe, and how what comes around goes around,” said NE drama student Priscilla Hatcher, who performs in act three. “It’s not necessarily up to us as humans. It’s up to the universe, and my character uses that to justify her dark act of revenge towards her former teacher.”

The actors all enjoy the challenge Thomas put forth in this type of intimate play.

“I have always loved the author, Neil LaBute,” said Brandon Wimmer, NE drama student, who performs in act one. “So the moment Stephen announced that, I was like, ‘OK, so one of my favorite writers and a director who can actually get me to go to limits I thought I never could.’ I jumped on the opportunity.”

Wimmer said the plays, to him, are about the duality of humans, the fact that they can have so much love in them but can still do evil things.

“We do have these dark sides to ourselves, and we don’t keep them hidden as much as we think we do. That’s what I think LaBute was trying to bring to light,” Wimmer said.

Hatcher said Thomas has a way with each student to get the most out of them, and these are especially challenging on that end, being that most of the acting is done alone with nothing to feed off but the character’s pure emotion.

The play will run at 7 p.m. nightly with a 2 p.m. matinee on Saturday in the NE Campus Theater (NFAB 1205). Admission is free for TCC students and faculty, $3 for non-TCC students and senior citizens and $6 for the general public. The play contains adult subject matter and is not suitable for children.

For reservations, contact the box office at 817-515-6678.