Bash (sometimes also called Bash: Latter-Day Plays) is an off-Broadway play by Neil LaBute. Each is one act long and very dark - also functioning as a Setting Update of a Greek tragedy. All three acts revolve around everyday people who are inspired to commit great evil due to their circumstances.
- Iphigenia In Orem: In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was the daughter of Agamemnon who was sacrificed at the wishes of Artemis - so that his ships could sail to Troy. In this version, the Iphigenia analogue is an eight-month-old baby girl, who was murdered by her father. The father delivers a monologue to an unseen person in a Las Vegas hotel room, explaining how he sacrificed his daughter for a higher standard of living.
- A Gaggle of Saints: The only one of the acts to feature two characters - John and Sue, two college-age adults attending a party in New York. At one point in the night, John and his friends found two middle-aged gay men in bed together. Following one of them to a public restroom, they beat him to death, and John stole the man's ring - which he presents to Sue at the end.
- Medea Redux: Medea was a sorceress in Greek mythology who used her magic to help Jason get the Golden Fleece - in exchange for him making her his queen. When he didn't follow through on the deal, she arranged for his uncle to be murdered just For the Evulz. This Medea is a woman who once had a baby with her teacher. Years later, after taking the boy to meet his father, she murdered him just to hurt the man.
Tropes:
- Affably Evil: John of A Gaggle of Saints appears to be a goofy young man, until he reveals he participated in the group murder of a gay man. In the original production he was played by Paul Rudd.
- Big Rotten Apple: The murder in A Gaggle of Saints - and the only one without sympathetic motives behind it - happens in New York.
- Black-and-Gray Morality: Regular people committing evil acts, some for sympathetic reasons.
- Break the Cutie: The girl of Medea Redux was seduced by her teacher, became pregnant and eventually murdered the boy just to hurt his father.
- Dark Secret: All three protagonists have committed murder.
- Homophobic Hate Crime: The fratboys of A Gaggle of Saints murder one of the gay men they meet.
- Jerk Jock: John and his frat boy friends in A Gaggle of Saints.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: The protagonist of Medea Redux believes this is what she's doing by killing her son. As her teacher never got any comeuppance for sleeping with a student, murdering his son is her way of punishing him.
- My God, What Have I Done?: At some point in A Gaggle of Saints, one of John's friends delivers a eulogy for the man they just murdered.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The man of Iphigenia In Orem was the Butt-Monkey of his workplace, and his colleagues pranked him by making him think he was getting fired. Then he went and murdered his baby daughter because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to afford to raise her.
- Offing the Offspring:
- Iphigenia In Orem features a father who killed his baby daughter, in order to secure a higher standard of living, after misunderstanding a joke by his colleagues.
- Medea Redux likewise has the mother killing her teenage son. Her motive isn't stated but it's implied to be a way of hurting his father.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Medea Redux's protagonist had a romance with her arts and sciences teacher in middle school.
- Teen Pregnancy: The son in Medea Redux was the result of one.
- Token Good Teammate: Sue in A Gaggle of Saints is the only character who does not commit an evil act.
- Tragic Keepsake: John of A Gaggle of Saints steals a ring from the murdered gay man, and gives it to Sue as a present.
- Unusual Euphemism: Iphigenia In Orem's protagonist calls his murder of his daughter "a calculated risk".
- Woman Scorned: Implied to be the case with Medea Redux. An incredibly dark example.
