The emotional and conversational approach of two actresses was all it took to deliver a powerful performance that left numerous theatergoers in tears.

Southeastern Theatre’s production of “‘night, Mother,” which was performed Wednesday, Feb. 15 through Saturday, Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. in Vonnie Borden Theatre, explored the themes of suicide and letting go through the dialogue between Chelsea Krause, a junior marketing major, and Veronica Gutierrez, a junior general studies major.

“That we can’t blame ourselves when a tragedy like this happens, but we can try to learn how to help those who feel that way,” said Director Chad Winters about the overall statement of the performance. “We never know 100 percent why. That’s the question, that’s why she [Marsha Norman] wrote the play.”

The play takes place in the household of Jessie (Krause) and Thelma “Mama” Cates (Gutierrez). It begins with Jessie coolly organizing the house and having a normal, everyday conversation with her mother. The drama begins when Jessie reveals her plans to commit suicide by the end of the night. The ensuing conversation reveals why Jessie has planned to commit suicide and Thelma desperately trying to figure out a way to stop the tragedy from happening.

“This show is so much more then the language,” Gutierrez said about the play. “It’s so much more the moments and the general sentiment of the story.”

While the two characters are revealing themselves to the audience, the set helped bring a sense of transparency to the play. It was built so that the audience could see past the boards and into the areas normally covered by wood in a real house.

When asked about the transparency of the set Winters elaborated on the fact that it did parallel the character’s intentions, but it also revealed an irony about them.

“They are opening up to each other, but at the same time they’ve lived their lives together all their years and they have sort of been looking through each other. They haven’t seen each other until tonight,” said Winters. “That was the idea we wanted to go with.”

The performance of the two women was so effective in conveying the message of the play that a number of audience members left the theatre in tears.

When asked about the audience’s reaction to the play, Krause and Gutierrez both expressed their feelings as being appreciative of the audience’s passion.

“In my real life experience, I have not dealt with this subject. This is a fairly new subject to me and to feel that I can convey it well enough to where people come out of it crying is extremely flattering,” said Krause. “It makes you realize how real and how raw this piece is and how relevant it is to everybody.”

“It is flattering and it’s also really unnerving because you hear about famous people and even your friends in some cases making you cry,” said Gutierrez. “In the end it’s good to know that you don’t need this big cinematic experience or these crazy effects or some kind of fantasy to see that people realize emotion, especially raw emotion like this play gives you.”

Southeastern Theatre will return to the stage with the performance of “Who the F*ck is Dan Smith? or a hipster ballet” on April 25 through April 28.