“I didn’t think it made any sense to build an oral history of a three-way conflict that only spoke to two of the sides,” says Emily, an American of Irish descent conducting an interview for her graduate history project with Dave, a veteran of the British occupying forces during the ravaging conflict known as The Troubles (1968-1998) in Northern Ireland. The three sides she’s referring to are the warring Catholic and Protestant factions and the British Army sent to quell the brutal violence there. Emily and Dave’s dialogue forms the crux of the first act of Leo McGann’s pulse-pounding and thought-provoking The Honey Trap, at the Irish Repertory Theater.

As Dave and Emily, Michael Hayden and Molly Ranson dance a tense tango, probing and testing each other as Dave relives a fateful night in 1979 when he and fellow soldier Bobby hooked up with a pair of Irish girls at a unionist pub and things went south. The second act goes in a different direction as Dave seeks revenge for the consequences of that encounter. McGann compassionately tells all perspectives on the story as participants on every side of this deadly triangle reveal the pain and anguish their people have endured.

McGann constructs his story like a taut-as-a-violin-string thriller, slowly building the tension and revising history as different narrators tell their versions of the same events. Director Matt Torney keeps the suspense tight, balancing terror with touches of humor. The contemporary action is interrupted with flashbacks as Dave is haunted by ghosts of his unresolved past. Michael Gottlieb’s eerie lighting and James Garver’s spooky sound design, suggesting haunted memories, help create a menacing atmosphere.

Hayden delivers an explosive performance as the bottled-up Dave, covering his rage with ribald jokes and slowly peeling back layers of hatred and defensiveness to expose his guilt. Ranson is his equal in their intense interview scenes, going toe to toe with him and his manipulations as she stands her ground and digs for honesty from her subject. Harrison Tipping is full of naive charm as the innocent Bobby and Daniel Marconi is an effective blustering bully as the young Dave (though the actor bears little resemblance to Hayden as the older edition of the same character).

Doireann MacMahon and Annabelle Zasowski are cheeky and barbed as the duplicitous damsels they pick up and Samantha Mathis is stunning as the older version of one of them. She passionately delivers a searing monologue detailing her reasons for joining the Irish Republican Army and justifying the harm she has caused Dave. In this moment and throughout the play, McGann’s larger theme of the immeasurable cost of war comes through as those who seem to be heartless villains are revealed to be wounded and reluctant combatants. You can apply that message to many contemporary conflicts from Ukraine to the Middle East, rendering The Honey Trap a timeless cautionary tale.

The Honey Trap: Sept. 28—Nov. 23. Irish Repertory Theater, 132 W. 22nd St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 20 mins. including intermission. irishrep.org.