A play dealing with bullying, death and suicide will be the start of Eastern’s theatre season at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Black Box Theatre in Doudna Fine Arts Center.

Eastern’s adaptation of “Gidion’s Knot” will continue at 2 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The play is about a grieving mother who tries to understand the events leading to her son’s suicide during a 90-minute parent-teacher conference with her son’s teacher, which was originally written by Johnna Adams.

J. Kevin Doolen, the chair for the theatre department, is the director for the theatre’s first production of the year.

The play coincides with the fifth annual bullying prevention conference, Friday.

“That was one of the reasons why I chose this play was so that we could support (the BVC),” Doolen said. ”We’re doing a special matinée performance of ‘Gidion’s Knot’ at 2 p.m. on Friday as part of the BVC conference on bullying.”

Doolen said both the teacher and the mother are learning how to come to terms with their own culpability and the events leading up to Gidion’s death.

“They’re both trying to put together the pieces of what happened,” Doolen said. “(Both of them) are trying to uncover the truth of what happened and who was Gidion at time of his life that they didn’t have exposure to.”

Doolen said following the evening performance of “Gidion’s Knot,” there would be a talk-back and panel discussion about some of the issues in the play.

“We met with social workers that deal with people dealing with death because of course the actors have to do a good deal of research to understand the play, the characters and what they’re going through,” Doolen said. “We had to also meet with the grief counselor to understand that process of accepting death, particularly the death of your child.”

Tickets for the performance are $12 for general audience, $10 for seniors, Eastern faculty and staff, and $5 for students.

Luis Martinez can be reached at 581-2812 or lpmartinez@eiu.edu