Trust and commitment are key parts in any relationship, whether it is a relationship between friends, lovers or performers.

This semester, Iowa State friends and co-performers Kim Hale and Josh Bryner have learned about the many facets of trust as they spent hours together in rehearsal for the unconventional production “The Woods.”

As the only two characters in this David Mamet play, Hale, who portrays the character of Ruth, and Bryner, who plays the character of Nick, have discovered that without trust, there is nothing.

“We’re completely dependent on each other,” Bryner, senior in math and performing arts, said. “[With only two characters], you learn how to listen and respect other actors.”

“There’s no phasing out,” Hale, junior in journalism and mass communication and performing arts, said. “You have to help each other out. He’s helped me out.”

Bryner simply nodded in agreement. “There’s a huge trust factor,” he said. “I think that’s why the director chose us to do the show. He knew we worked together and have had to trust each other before.”

“I don’t know if I could do [the show] with anyone else,” Hale added.

“The Woods” will be the closing production of student-run ISU Theatre Second Stage’s 1997-98 season.

The play focuses on the relationships between men and women, featuring young lovers Nick and Ruth who spend a night in a cabin in the woods.

Throughout the night, the couple explores their relationship, and what went wrong with it and how to deal with it.

The play also deals with the internal struggles each character faces and how these struggles affect the relationship.

“[Nick] keeps his feelings to himself,” Bryner said. “He tries to be macho, but his feelings creep up inside him and they come out in the wrong ways, like through violence and sex.

“He doesn’t know how to deal with his feelings because he never really learned how from his father,” he added.

Ruth, on the other hand, struggles with her own feelings.

“Ruth is in love with the idea of being in love,” Hale said. “In the beginning, she is everywhere she wants to be — in the right place and with the right man — but she slowly learns she may be wrong.

“Also, at the beginning, she’s not very strong because everything is perfect,” Bryner jumped in.

But in the end, Ruth emerges and becomes strong-minded and realizes things aren’t “cracked-up the way they should be,” Hale added.

Under the direction of Phillip Marten, graduate student in theater, the five-person production has been working on the play since February but has been rehearsing heavily since spring break.

“It’s been interesting with five people in and out all the time,” Hale said. “It’s not an easy show to sit through night after night, but they’ve been great.”

“It’s been a real group effort,” Bryner added. “It’s just not the director up there telling us what to do, but it’s been a team effort and not just the characters.

“It’s also a play that everyone can relate to,” he continued. “Most people have probably felt these emotions before even if it was for only two seconds.”

“The Woods” will be performed Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m at Fisher Theater.

Tickets are available the Iowa State Center Ticket Office, all TicketMaster locations or by calling 292-1888.