Body of Work

'BASH' CAPTURES THE DARK SIDE
OF HUMAN NATURE BEAUTIFULLY
(excerpt)
September 12, 2003, Barbara Bannon, The Salt Lake Tribune

Although playwright Neil LaBute has a strong Utah connection and the three one-act plays that comprise bash are set securely within the culture and religious worldview, local theater companies have actively avoided producing his work. Now Plan-B Theatre Company, true to its mission of staging edgy and provocative plays, has embraced the challenge.

Stephanie Howell sharply defines and distinguishes between her two characters in Medea Redux and A Gaggle of Saints. Carl Nelson’s man in Iphigenia in Orem is boyishly ingenuous, then calculating and cruel. Robert Scott Smith’s John in Gaggle is a gregarious but unfeeling hypocrite, his affability barely covering a volatile violence. All three actors orchestrate their characters’ mood swings masterfully under the adept, intuitive direction of Jeffrey Ingman.

bash is not for everyone, but its powerful portrait of the dark side of human nature shapes a theater experience that’s sure to provoke discussion.