Review: IN THE WAKE at The Bent will make theatregoers think.

The Bent, the Coachella Valley’s LGBTQ+ theatre, is presenting a wonderfully directed and acted and technically superb dramedy, IN THE WAKE. The play is well-written and generates lots of laughs and lots of pathos, although I consider it a bit too wordy. Still, it is well worth seeing.

IN THE WAKE’s playwright, Lisa Kron, also wrote the book and lyrics for the 2015 Tony-winning musical FUN HOME, which examines a dysfunctional family whose father and daughter struggle with gay-related issues. Although IN THE WAKE also explores the relationship of LGBTQ characters, it couldn’t be more different from FUN HOME; IN THE WAKE deals with “normal” lives — lives that confront sadness and even tragedy — but lives that don’t involve little girls helping out in their family’s funeral home or older girls finding out that a child-molesting parent has “fallen” in front of a truck.

Even though IN THE WAKE is loaded with laughs (especially in the first act), and irony, it is no feel-good story. This review is coming out a few days later than I would have liked because there is so much to digest in the play that I felt that I couldn’t analyze it without reading the script and mulling over the dialogue and what I had seen on stage.

The complex story begins with the bizarre 2000 presidential election, where Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the election. The plot centers on Ellen (Equity member Kim Schroeder Long), a liberal New Yorker, who is depressed and angry about the results of the election and who can’t stop haranguing her family and friends about politics. Her partner, Danny (Ashley Robinson, another Equity member) is a laid-back teacher who leads a conventional life and adores Ellen. His sister, Kayla (Kudra Wagner), who lives in the same walk-up building, is Ellen’s best friend and considers herself married to Laurie (Jessica Lenz). Same-sex marriage is not yet legal in New York, but the two nonetheless held a huge, cheerful wedding. Judy (Sharianne Greer), who works overseas as a USAID contractor helping displaced people, is a total cynic and doesn’t hold out much hope that elections can help people in need. She takes in her mixed-race high-school niece, Tessa (Allie Hebb), who has struggled with her mother’s dysfunctional background. Tessa is amazed that Ellen and Danny are not married, but Kayla and Laurie, who can’t marry, consider themselves to be each other’s wives. The main part of the plot, other than political arguments, concerns bisexual Ellen’s affair with Amy (J. Clare Merritt), leading to a love triangle between Ellen and Danny and Ellen and Amy that makes everyone miserable.

The thing that I found most fascinating about IN THE WAKE is that George W. Bush is the villain, described in language that most liberals would use about the current president. Until I discovered that the play was published in 2010, I assumed that Ms. Kron was using the Bush years as a stand-in for current times; the discussions about W’s term in office could be lifted wholesale to use in a play about today. I’d love to see Ms. Kron update IN THE WAKE — she wouldn’t have to change much.

IN THE WAKE also deals with depression; most of the characters appear to suffer from chronic sadness. The key question for me is whether the two heavily political characters are depressed because of politics or because of their personal lives. A large portion of the play involves analyzing how much a person should be tied into political happenings.

These are not nice people, in my opinion. At first, Danny seems to be the only one who is patient and forgiving, but when he finally gets what he wants, he throws it away, causing Ellen a great deal of pain. Don’t any of these people (other than Kayla and Laurie) believe in loyalty to partners? And don’t Kayla and Laurie know how to mind their own business about other people’s affairs? Apparently not.

I was blown away by the high quality of acting from everyone, including those who are not Equity members. And director Laura Stearns, with whose work I was previously unfamiliar, has strongly demonstrated her expertise. The complexity of this play makes it a difficult one to direct, because the characters, while blathering on about their political and social views, or while becoming angry about other characters blathering on, say some very funny things, but most (other than Danny) are not intended to be funny people. Ms. Stearns successfully walked the line between making her characters into fools and losing the comedic aspects of the play. I was also impressed by the stage business that the actors performed, adding to the characters’ richness — actions such as hugs and tears and hand motions. Their confusing combination of love and disdain for each other comes through with flying colors.

Adding to the richness of the story is Jason Reale’s fabulous set. The main portion shows the small but cheerful “tenement” apartment in which Ellen and Danny live. It has a balcony (which the written script calls a fire escape) and, despite being a walkup, is not really a tenement. Instead, reference to the “tenement” seems to be sarcasm — one more example of the cynical humor with which the characters treat their own lives. In New York City, almost all middle class apartments are deficient in some way.

I may be wrong in my interpretation of IN THE WAKE as showing unlikable, dissatisfied people — I suspect that many theatregoers will view the characters differently. No matter what, however, this play will make people think and analyze, even if the excess verbiage is sometimes annoying. And the sheer artistry is well worth the experience. See this production, unless your political views are right-wing, in which case it will drive you crazy.

IN THE WAKE will run for two more weekends (through Saturday, February 28, 2026) on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, February 19-21 at 7:00 p.m.; on Thursday and Friday, February 26-27 at 7:00 p.m.; and on Sunday, February 22 and Saturday, February 28 at 2:00 p.m. Ticket prices are $42. Performances take place at the Palm Springs Cultural Center (the Camelot Theaters), 2300 East Baristo Road, Palm Springs, CA 92262 (across Baristo Road from Palm Springs High School). Contact the theatre by telephone at (442) 268-5474 or, for tickets, via the Web site at www.thebent.org .

The rest of The Bent’s 2025-26 season consists of:

THE GREEN ROOM (March 18-19) (Reading) — A modern adaptation of Sartre’s NO EXIT, by Bent actor and designer Jason Reale.

THE SEARCH FOR SIGNS OF INTELLIGENT LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE (April 22-23) (Reading) — Jane Wagner wrote this hilarious, Tony-winning show in 1985 for her then-partner, now wife, Lily Tomlin, who plays multiple characters.

A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (May 8 – 24, 2026) — The Bent’s first musical production. While attempting to put on an amateur production of Oscar Wilde’s SALOME in a local church, bus conductor Alfie Byrne confronts the forces of bigotry and shame over a love “that dare not speak its name.”

CASHINO (May 28-29, 2026) — CASHINO combines film and live performance. Each show starts with a different short film about two legendary singers, Johnny Niagra and Pepper Cole, as they embark on a quest to become internet entrepreneurs in the early 2000’s, followed by a high energy & emotionally charged live set.