Michael Lee, left, and Brian Mann star in Joseph Heller's "We Bombed in New Haven," one of three plays in "The Arte of War."

For the final weekend, the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs’ theater company, Theatre ‘d Art, offers up an innovative and entertaining evening in “The Arte of War,” a triptych of plays all touching on the pain and absurdity of war.

Three pieces in one night is an unusual form, but one that works well here, despite the three-hour-plus running time. It begins with the haunting 10-minute work by Caryl Churchill called “Seven Jewish Children,” written in response to a 2008-9 Israeli military strike on Gaza. Played in seven elliptical vignettes, the actors move through time with one question in mind: What should they tell “her” –  presumably a young girl — about life as a Jew, starting with the Holocaust.

“Tell her that they want to drive us in the sea,” one character says. “Tell her they don’t,” counters another.

The acts initially feel disjointed, but by the end, ”Seven Jewish Children” falls together in one sad-triumphant-baffling piece. Kudos.

Joseph Heller’s comic “We Bombed in New Haven” gobbles up a vast swath of the evening — mostly to good effect. Like his brilliant “Catch-22,” it’s satire, which is a tough line to walk, especially on stage. Are the players actors or puppets, real characters with real emotions or just symbols? It’s a question that the play asks itself — and sometimes the audience — as it considers the farsical nature of war.

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