Actors are taking the stage to perform “Extremities,” a drama and thriller that could shock audience members, according to two senior actresses, Ali Watson and Courtney West.

In the performance, a woman is attacked in her home by a rapist and gets away. When her roommates come home, they try to decide what to do, while other conflicts take place in the situation.

“It’s kind of terrible to use shock value, but that’s what I’m excited for,” Watson said. “At the end, I want to see if the audience will clap or not. It might be a nervous applause.”

The victim, Marjorie, will be played by West, while Watson plays one of Marjorie’s roommates, named Patricia, who is a social worker trying to be the problem solver.

The other roommate’s name is Perry and will be played by senior Brandi Dority. Perry does not want anything to do with the situation, and is kind of bitter. Senior Jeff Milton is also in the performance and plays the home invader and rapist.

“Jeff Milton fits because he can handle it,” Watson said. “He’s nothing like his character. His character is a horrible, horrible person.”

To learn their roles well, Associate Professor of Psychology Wendi Born helped the cast learn more about each character.

“We learned the characters have some problems. She helped explain our characters a little more,” West said. “Everyone has a huge role.”

West is used to playing more comical parts that are not as serious as “Extremities.”

“We’re such good friends, and our characters aren’t such good friends. I’m yelling at my friend, when my character is yelling at another person,” West said.

While at Baker University, West nor Watson have played parts like this in the past.

This also will be a different performance for Dority as well because she will take the stage performing instead of helping behind the scenes. Dority is nervous for the production, but thinks the meaning of the story will catch some attention.

“We’re assuming people might not leave as happy,”Dority said. “It might make a lot of them feel uncomfortable, but it also kind of has a message of, like, be careful and you don’t know your next-door neighbor. They’re not who you think they are. We hope that they like it, though.”

West said the performance is for mature audiences and contains bad language and violence.

“It’s kind of a psychological aspect,” she said, “If you like to know the way people think and the things they do.”

“Extremities” began Thursday and runs at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and will hit the stage again at 2 p.m. Sunday in Rice Auditorium.