Bash: Three Plays

by Neil LaBute

Neil LaBute burst onto the American theater scene with the premiere of BASH at NYC’s Douglas Fairbanks Theater in 1999 in a wildly praised production that featured Calista Flockhart, Paul Rudd, and Ron Eldard. It went on to play at the Almeida Theatre in London and since then has seen hundreds of productions across the U.S. and around the world. These three provocative one-act plays examine the complexities of evil in everyday life and thrillingly exhibit LaBute’s signature raw lyrical intensity. Ablaze with the muscular dialogue and searing artistry that immediately established him as a major playwright, BASH is enduringly brilliant—classic and essential Neil LaBute. In Medea Redux, a young woman relates her complex and ultimately tragic relationship with her high school English teacher; in Iphigenia in Orem, a businessman confides to a stranger in a Las Vegal hotel room about a chilling crime; and in A Gaggle of Saints, a young couple separately recounts the violent events of an anniversary weekend in New York City.

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Fiction, School, English Literature, Contemporary

96 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Neil LaBute is an American film director, screenwriter and playwright.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, LaBute was raised in Spokane, Washington. He studied theater at Brigham Young University (BYU), where he joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At BYU he also met actor Aaron Eckhart, who would later play leading roles in several of his films. He produced a number of plays that pushed the envelope of what was acceptable at the conservative religious university, some of which were shut down after their premieres. LaBute also did graduate work at the University of Kansas, New York University, and the Royal Academy of London.

In 1993 he returned to Brigham Young University to premier his play In the Company of Men, for which he received an award from the Association for Mormon Letters. He taught drama and film at IPFW in Fort Wayne, Indiana in the early 1990s where he adapted and filmed the play, shot over two weeks and costing $25,000, beginning his career as a film director. The film won the Filmmakers Trophy at the Sundance Film Festival, and major awards and nominations at the Deauville Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, the Thessaloniki Film Festival, the Society of Texas Film Critics Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle.

LaBute has received high praise from critics for his edgy and unsettling portrayals of human relationships. In the Company of Men portrays two misogynist businessmen (one played by Eckhart) cruelly plotting to romance and emotionally destroy a deaf woman. His next film Your Friends & Neighbors (1998), with an ensemble cast including Eckhart and Ben Stiller, was a shockingly honest portrayal of the sex lives of three suburban couples. In 2000 he wrote an off-Broadway play entitled Bash: Latter-Day Plays, a set of three short plays (Iphigenia in orem, A gaggle of saints, and Medea redux) depicting essentially good Latter-day Saints doing disturbing and violent things. One of the plays was a much-talked-about one-person performance by Calista Flockhart. This play resulted in his being disfellowshipped from the LDS Church. He has since formally left the LDS Church.

LaBute's 2002 play The Mercy Seat was one of the first major theatrical responses to the September 11, 2001 attacks. Set on September 12, it concerns a man who worked at the World Trade Center but was away from the office during the attack — with his mistress. Expecting that his family believes that he was killed in the towers' collapse, he contemplates using the tragedy to run away and start a new life with his lover. Starring Liev Schreiber and Sigourney Weaver, the play was a commercial and critical success.

LaBute's latest film is The Wicker Man, an American version of a British cult classic. His first horror film, it starred Nicolas Cage and Ellen Burstyn and was released on September 1, 2006 by Warner Bros. Pictures to scathing critical reviews and mediocre box office.

He is working with producer Gail Mutrux on the screen adaptation of The Danish Girl by David Ebershoff.

Reviews

[david · Rating 3 out of 5]

A play with three distinct settings, unrelated in cast and set, but correlated by the sadness we witness or cause to occur in ourselves and others.

‘Medea Redux’ concerns a young girl and her relationship with an older male teacher.

‘Iphigenia in Orem’ concerns a business man’s hidden secrets conveyed to an unconscious drunk in a bar.

‘Gaggle of Saints’ portrays anti-gay sentiment when a group of college kids head into NYC for the weekend.

The complexities of evil are served for our consideration.

A totemic for inappropriate actions and words, creating harsh consequences, is the second dish we contemplate.

Our inactions, our indecencies, our need to demonize something good, the manner in which a lapse in comport, even for a second, even as a joke, can disrupt a lifetime for so many, are also on display.

Our accreted sufferance for the absurdities of life is exposed.

This is the second play I have read from this author.

Recommended. (3.5)

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having performed the last play (medea redux), I have a special link with this collection. Each play has roots in the Greek Tragedies of Euripides. (**spoiler alert**) The opening play is a monologue in which a businessman confesses to the murder of his infant daughter. It is a passive act of violence and makes for a chilling monologue to witness. The center play is a two person affair, with actors delivering monologues next to each other. They recite the story of their relationship, culminating in a night in New York that neither of them can forget. During their visit, the man steals off with some of his friends and commits a horrific gay bashing. It is another heavy, chilling piece, that can be tweaked in performance to deliver great chills. The final play, the one so near and dear to my heart, is a monologue delivered by a young mother. The circumstances of where she is delivering it are not clear, but rather suggested--she is in some kind of an institution. She recalls the story of how she was seduced by her teacher at the age of thirteen, how she became pregnant by him and was left by him to raise the child alone. As the child ages, she facilitates a relationship through the mail between the father and the child. For the child's fourteenth birthday, she arranges a meeting. After father and son and have, and the father leaves, she murders her own son to enact revenge on the father. It's a brutal play to perform, but incredibly gratifying as an actor--the character is so detailed and crushingly beautiful in her tragedy. It's superbly written, as are all of the plays in this collection, and highly worth reading to anyone with an interest in drama in theatre and character development.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

*SPOILERS BELOW*

Bash is a collection of one-act plays written by Neil LaBute. I enjoy LaBute's writting (loved Fat Pig) and I wish to read more of his works but Bash comes across as trying too hard. Starting with every sentence in lowercase letters, Bash tells three different stories of "unblinking portraits of the complexities of evil in everyday life, exhibiting LaBute's signature raw lyrical intensity." Intense and raw? Yes. Complexities of evil? Eh, not so.

Like the decision to stray from his Shift key, Bash seems to be an edgy teenager, flicking it's dark hair as it tells you how evil and crazy it is. The first, iphigenia in orem, is a man confessing in a hotel about how he murdered his infant to reap the pitying benefits and keep his job. LaBute is at his best with natural dialogue and this particular piece is the highlight.

The second, a gaggle of saints, is the low-point. There is too much time spent on a young couple describing their relationship and weekend to get down to where a guy and his friends probably murdered a gay man. The tension builds but you're always wondering when LaBute will get to the main crux. These characters are uninteresting.

The third, medea redux, tells of a woman describing her relationship with her high-school teacher when she was thirteen. Pregnant and suddenly abandoned, the woman has the child and decides to murder it fourteen years later. Why? Because fuck you, that's why.

a gaggle of saints and medea redux (isn't it annoying how I didn't capitalize the 'a'? Welcome to Bash) seem to have the 'evil' come out of nowhere but the only thing that is 'coming out' is the desperation to be thrilling and unpredictable. medea redux has the advantage with making its character sympathetic and likable.

I think LaBute has great ideas with these but they are vapid in the short burst that they are presented. I think all three could be improved with a longer story attached (except a gaggle of saints because those characters are fucking annoying).

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

At the recommendation of a friend, I watched the teleplay online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmcCH.... Each act reveals an inhuman act transposed from Greek tragedy to contemporary Mormon culture. I found the writing brilliant. On the one hand, Mormonism is susceptible to the kind of fundamentalist, magical thinking and also the American bravado that in part explains tragedies like these; on the other hand, so does almost every other American-born or nurtured religion and political ideology.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

My opinion on these plays steadily improved as I got through the book. These are plays of people who have no real weight or love for others' lives outside of their romatic relationship. Their understanding of the world is therefore fundamentally empty, and terrifyingly believable. The references to their corresponding Greek myths are occasionally on the nose, but never totally graceless. The abhorrent last rites in "a gaggle of saints" gave me a shocking and physical sense of tragedy. "medea redux" has evocative and strong metaphor and symbolism, alongside a
Medea without furious rage or obvious wrath. I think the gore and sin of Greek myths is often adopted by modern authors in a very academic or poetic tone, rarely in such a capacity that preserves the visceral, haunting horror.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Wren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reviewing this trilogy of three act plays proves challenging. LaBute presents characters who first appear to be perfectly mundane, ho-hum middle Americans. Then we discover that each has committed a horrible act against another person, an unforgiveable act. Nevertheless, we observe the logic that led them to their horrible actions and how they justified themselves after the fact.

So do I like these plays? Do I give them high reviews? Do I want to read more? Do I tell my friends to read them?

I don't know. They are disturbing. But I believe that is the point.

1. Iphegenia in Orem: a middle manager turns out not to be so average. Or at least we hope and pray he's an anomaly.

2. A Gaggle of Saints" a group of good church kids get into trouble during a visit to the big city. What does this say about their character?

3. Medea Redux: a young girl gets entangled with one of her teachers. A complex power dynamic unfolds.

I actually saw Medea Redux peformed at a Sunstone conference in Chicago, mid/late 90s, probably a year or two before the play was published / produced in NYC. It was mesmerizing, chilling, provocative. I relived that experience again and again, using it to examine power dynamics in other (often real) relationships. LaBute's work got under my skin!

But why does LaBute hold up the horrors for us to consider? Are they cautionary tales? Are we all capable of such crimes? Are they invitations to offer compassion to people who have walked down the wrong path -- a path that we might all wander down if unlucky, unchecked, unchaperoned?

I'm not sure.

But look at me asking these questions about good, evil, and human nature. I believe that is LaBute's genius. He crafts something and puts it out there -- and then we complete the piece of art by mulling over its implications....which also includes these questions: what is the role of art? to present the ideal? to be realistic? to dramatize the possible to grotesque proportions so that we can examine it more closely?

Read LaBute and join the debate. Or don't.

[Lady · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not read Bash. I saw the play because my friend and singing partner acted within this rendition.

Four stars: Acting
Three stars: Author's credit - good work. Not for me!

Theater Review
Bash by Neil LaBute is emotionally heavy. It clearly reveals evil has a face. Clean-cut, handsome or cute, morally decent-looking but underneath darkness resides. There are three stories center on power and primal urges to control. Although I have never seen any of LaBute movies; I have read he portrays the notion of 'human will' as a weapon, capable of inflicting destruction.

This play employed two actors. The monologue starts with simple language that hooks you and as it continues you begin to see the ugliness.

Enjoyed the actors for the character development but I can't say I enjoyed the theme.

[Neil Schleifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three one acts which are each extended monologues exploring the human potential for violence.

While fascinating (and terrifying) these pieces are cold. It is awfully hard to read a piece where, while you may feel pity or even a strange sense of understanding for the characters, you ultimately find them unsavory.

LaBute revels in the unsavory, and if you are familiar with his other work you know that he almost delights in humiliation and degradation. Again, this is fascinating in small doses. It is most definitly NOT something a sustained reader could gwow a fondnes for -- unless they tend toward the sado-masochistic. No jusgements. Just being honest.

[Renee Alberts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Neil Labute’s characters are straightforward, normal folks, like salesmen and college students who do unspeakable things—and they’re not even sorry. Labute, who penned the films In the Company of Men and the play The Shape of Things, writes dialogue without capitalization, which lends itself well to the characters’ informal and familiar tone as they deliver the play in monologues. The most horrifying aspect of these plays is not so much the crimes these people commit, but the way they assimilate it seamlessly into their average lives.

[Jillyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Yet another play I had to read for my theater class that just wasn't up my alley. It's really a shame, I love the theater. But the works for this course this year, in my opinion, have just been mediocre. I'm sure other people disagree, and that's fine.

I found Bash a bit hard to force myself through, and I won't be reading it again. It's a set of three different stories: one about a murder, one about a relationship, and one about a violent weekend outing. They're a realistic, gritty look into modern life.

[Nelson Maddaloni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a brutal reading, not because it was bad but because of the subject matter. Following three stories featuring Mormon characters, the plays are all intricate monologues that tell a rather dark and distressing narrative, but man is it fascinating and wow! the prose is fantastic! This was the first play I read by Neil LaBute and I thought it was solid enough to follow his career with other great reads like In the Company of Men or The Shape of Things, and so on. This play is worth your time but don't expect to feel comfortable by the end of it!

[Joey · Rating 4 out of 5]

“‘adakia,’ that’s the word. the word I was trying, you know, that’s it. ‘the world out of balance.’ you can look it up if you wanna, but I’m sure that’s the one…i knew it’d come to me if i waited long enough.”

I found this in my campus’s little free library in one of my early years here. Underlined to hell and back, still covered in stickers marking it as “used”. Likely parted with by one of my theatre professors or a student on the verge of graduation. I found many plays that year. I hadn’t chosen to brave it until this year though, upon a night in my apartment discussing my university’s handling of another LaBute work (reasons to be pretty, if you must know). But no work, no matter how well it was handled, could have prepared me for the latter day insanity that Bash was about to bestow on me.
The first play in the collection, Iphigenia in Orem, was a nauseating read at the very least. Full of dread and an underlying sense of despair that prevented me from conquering it in its textual form. I found myself parting ways with the text into the hands of my partner’s roommate before i could even finish it. But it still haunted me. That photo of Ron Eldard in the chair describing the unspeakable haunted me every waking moment of my day.
I’d like to first thank the person who posted this on YouTube as having access to a format that allowed for pausing, breaks, and resumption at my discretion as this show is HEAVY.
It’s many things. Sad, scary, shaking. Only aided by each actor’s delivery of each line. Describing things in graphic detail or in little to none with the same level of honesty and intensity that just absolutely churns your stomach.
Bash is Paul Rudd before the wholesome dad typecast
Bash is violence described that provokes the same reactions as viewing it head on
Bash is “innocence” in it’s literal and figurative forms being ripped to shreds
Bash is theatre

[:))]

aviam. uf. aquest autor... mare de déu senyor. ma mare m'ha preguntat de què anava i li he dit sang, dolor, assassinats. què dir, si soc sincera m'encantaria muntar aquesta obra. veure-la també! són tres històries molt macabres però explicades des d'una sinceritat, una impassibilitat frívola. és una miqueta Raskólnikov en tant que tres assassins que et descobreixen la seva psicologia. pots estar-hi d'acord, entendre'ls o no, però la genialitat rau en com els personatges et conviden, t'obren la porta i et diuen ei, entra, benvingut. i tu seus i escoltes i l'únic que pots fer -si arribes a aconseguir reaccionar- és obrir els ulls i els llavis, no pots dir res, plores... tot és al·lucinant, cada paraula, per petita que sigui... crec que pocs cops havia llegit res d'igual. encara estic bastant estupefacta, no m'acabo de poder creure que aquesta veritat pugui ser tan crua. però és real, o almenys com és el teatre: versemblant.
quan decideixes enfocar la teva vida a explicar històries i et trobes un text així... el que dic, és difícil fins i tot reaccionar. bravo

[Martin Denton · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's no denying the raw power of Neil LaBute's bash: the three pieces that comprise it exert a grim fascination. I have very mixed feelings about this play. Its subject matter--good people doing evil, according to its author; more specifically, two cases of infanticide and one brutal incident of gay bashing--is inherently horrific and sensational. Its presentation, in sharp and deliberate contrast, is cool and sleek and devastatingly self-aware. bash is about the pent-up anger of seemingly ordinary people, but it's not at all an angry play. No, it's a cruel play--terribly cruel. It's not the kind of work I tend to read or see in live performance (though I did this when it opened in 1999 in New York City). My final takeaway was: inside even the best of us, does not the capacity to do great harm to others exist? And to do it again and again and again?

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Neil LaBute and this collection of one acts blew my mind. I was reading the last piece on the airplane and I broke into silent uncontrollable sobs of horror and pain that could not be controlled even by the weird sideways looks I received from the person sitting next to me. I loved these three pieces and I think it was absolutely brilliant to have them all staged together as it raises many questions about the connections between the characters in each piece. In short I loved it!

[Elliot Chalom · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Labute’s plays but these are hard to give more than 3 stars to, even though I enjoyed them. Each of the one-act plays in Bash feel a little more like the start of something than a complete something. Again, I enjoyed them - I’m all for a chilling short story - but I also left wanting more. So 3 stars because I wouldn’t recommend Bash to someone who hadn’t first read Labute’s other, more noteworthy, plays, but I don’t regret reading them and would recommend them to a completist.

[Tommy Harkness · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great collection of 3 one act plays. 2 are monologues. The writing is very good. It would have to be to sustain in that structure. They’re very dark pieces. But I think that is what makes it so interesting. This sort of exploration of darkness through these seemingly normal characters with a slight connection to religion/Greek mythology, a hint of it sprinkled on top. I’m a fan of this playwright and I think this is one of his better works.

[Sadik · Rating 5 out of 5]

its nice story

[Tom Beaver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[nate]

- "medea redux"

[carelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read it for my English class but loved all 3 plays. “Medea Redux” was an interesting rendition of the Greek tragedy Medea.
Dark but an interesting read.

[Marisa Valent · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gorgeous and gripping set of plays. Each of the three had me on the edge of my seat. I tore through this in a day!

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

dark, thrilling, brilliant.

[Cori · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three short plays. Two of which are monologues. One is a two person play. All plays are spoken to someone off-stage. All are tragic and horrifying. Yet they're all good reads. Tough to decide between three and four stars.



(TBG)

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for Gaggle of Saints by Neil LaBute

Another cutting is for Medea Redux
By Neil LaBute

Yet another cuttings is for Iphigenia in Orem
By Neil LaBute

Still another cutting is for A Gaggle of Saints
By Neil LaBute

[Mary Slowik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah, Neil LaBute. My favorite former Mormon. These are three short plays, similar but distinct, all dealing closely with his usual banality-of-evil theme. As depicted here, evil appears in our lives not as a separate entity, easy to distinguish, but rather as something coded into our very nature. It can rise out of seemingly rational, everyday decisions. In all of these plays, Mormons do pretty unspeakable things. These represent more, uncomfortable-thought-provoking drama in that vein. I enjoyed them, though I felt a typical sort of cognitive-dissonance at work. There are some traces of sexism, and frank homophobia here and there. If LaBute had done more critical thinking, though, would he really have joined the LDS in the first place? He's less virulent than Orson Scott Card, and more tolerable than David Mamet, as playwright and person, but still. I can't help but hold LaBute's incredibly silly religion against him-- more importantly, I think it negatively affects his work. Charged, caustic, witty as they might be... the plays collected in this volume consistently feel not-quite-there, or almost-brilliant. Is this review over-hyphenated? Why, yes. C'est-la-guerre! Although, this was published in 1999, and LaBute later left the church, so maybe his stuff has since improved.

I didn't really buy his 'redux' of Medea, but this still made for a quick, compelling read. Who knew Calista Flockhart did so much stage work?

[Lizzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this at the first BC/EFA Broadway Flea Market I went to, in 2000. The play was new then, so I bought it with a bunch of other books for a dollar, but never read it. Or any LaBute, for that matter. Probably because I was pretty sure I wouldn't like it. Perhaps because I was worried I would?

Well, no worries, nothing exciting here. The first scene was ok, though kind of elementary. I could deal with the Iphigenia metaphor. The second scene totally lost me. It was like being stuck making excruciating small talk with totally horrible rich people for half an hour. And are they talking together or separately? It goes back and forth. Does she really need to be there? Any chance they'll kick themselves in the face? Oh sorry, SPOILERS. The third is all oblique rambling. And that is about it.

I don't get why all the "characters" are LDS, for no apparent reason or connection. To say what exactly? Only one of these stories is about institutionally-condoned bigotry, so as a whole it's not really about a church's warped value system. And the other two are more about their Greek allegories. So who knows. LaBute clearly thinks he is writing the edgiest junk in the world, and he wants to make you feel like you are super cool for participating. I don't find those kinds of authorial favors very interesting.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems like lots of people are producing LaBute these days. I do enjoy him in many ways. Although this is pretty much a monologue play and I stand by the belief that monologue plays are just the easy route to take for playwrights. It's much harder to figure out how to tell the story through, you know, action, instead of just...telling the story. That being said, these stories are really deliciously dark and interesting to hear unfold. I want to be cast in it. Badly. For the roles are really challenging and let's face it. Sitting down and just telling a story is challenging, to keep that interesting for an audience.

I read Bash on a Saturday afternoon and then immediately took a nap. I had the most horrible dreams. I like plays that can get in your head that way. Oof, the story about the man who killed his baby in order to keep his job? Yeah. I think that's fairly, horrifyingly current as far as that fear goes. What would you do in order to keep your job? Although, the one about the homophobic Christians beating up people in New York is, thankfully, a little dated. Still. It's a nasty little collection of plays and I want to participate in the nastiness. Bring it!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of plays that scald and lash out at you. Mainly because you know these people, they are your next door neighbors, the people you sit behind in church, and that’s why these plays will cut deep. LaBute shines much needed light on some very dark areas of faith in today’s society, growing up, and the power of loss. These were not easy plays to get through, but plays that I’m very glad I took the time to read and hope to one day perform as an actor.