Normally, four-year-olds don't have cocaine-using, violent friends. Then there’s Lucy.

In "Mr. Marmalade," the first Basement Arts show of the season, the wild elements of a child’s imagination are revealed. Lucy, played by Shannon Eagen, a junior in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, fabricates a friend named Mr. Marmalade, a troubled businessman played by MT&D senior Joey Richter.

The play, by Noah Haidle, is set in a New Jersey living room that incorporates fantastical elements like sunflowers and cacti portrayed by actors. Instead of playing with her toys lying on the floor, Lucy uses her mind as a dangerous playground.

“This show is really about the imagination and that means the audience needs to have one as well,” said MT&D sophomore Olivia Lloyd, the show’s director. “It’s a dark comedy, but really what it’s about is growing up and how little kids are sponges and can pick up anything that the world throws at them.”

Lloyd weighed in on one scene in particular, in which a drunk and drugged Mr. Marmalade comes home and assaults Lucy.

“It’s one of those things where it becomes our decision of whether this is something that Lucy actually witnessed because she has a crappy mom,” Lloyd said, “or the TV is always on and you put SVU (“Law & Order”) on for too long and a kid regurgitates it back to you.”

Lloyd saw an early production of "Mr. Marmalade" with her dad in her hometown, Shepherdstown, West Virginia, at age 13. She said the play inspired her to work toward becoming a director.

“Seeing it with my dad was an interesting experience because it gets kind of raunchy at points — not raunchy, but it gets kind of edgy, and it was hard to watch with a parent at age 13," Lloyd said. “It was one of the first shows I was looking at and saying, ‘Man I would like to be a director. This would be a really fun thing to direct.’ ”

For Lloyd, an LSA transfer, Basement Arts presented the perfect opportunity to showcase her directing abilities for the first time with a play she loves.

“I know Basement Arts likes to do edgy shows. They are very well known for doing shows that are an unconventional sort of theater,” Lloyd said. “I proposed a show because I knew the best way to learn how to do something is to just do it … it has ended up working out so far.”

For the nostalgic, the music of “Mr. Marmalade” comes from memorable television programs from the early ’90s, as well as more contemporary children shows.

“I’m using a lot of music from kids shows, both from our generation of childhood shows and the current,” Lloyd explained. “ ‘Yo Gabba Gabba!’ is actually some kind of freaky psychedelic stuff and I love it. … It’s being used a lot in this show.”

“Mr. Marmalade” has some heavy themes and analyzes complex human relationships. But its director hopes people can find ways to take it lightly.

"We sometimes forget about how childhood can be so innocent and playful,” Lloyd said. “It’s not a terribly serious show — it really isn’t. This show is all about having a lot of fun and laughing about things that maybe you shouldn’t laugh at.”

For the late Friday showing of "Mr. Marmalade" especially, the cast and crew want the audience involved in that sense of humor and playfulness: everyone is encouraged to dress in Halloween costumes.