Review: THE BED TRICK at Artists Repertory Theatre

Is all well that ends well? If you’re familiar with Shakespeare's comedy, you know this is a loaded question. The play's supposedly happy resolution hinges on the "bed trick," a deception in which one person tricks another person into sex by impersonating a third. It's a troubling foundation for romance, and Keiko Green's incisive new comedy THE BED TRICK, now opening Artists Repertory's season, interrogates this ancient narrative device for our modern moment.

The concept of the bed trick predates Shakespeare, though he used it more than once. It appears in Genesis 29, Chaucer’s “The Reeves Tale,” and countless other Western and non-Western mythologies and literatures. But how does this trope resonate in a culture of consent? What are the lasting harms of these deceptions? Green finds the perfect vehicle for these questions in three college freshmen navigating the bewildering world of sex and love.

There’s Lulu (Madeleine Tran), sexually experienced but insecure about her relationship with her boyfriend, Willis (Mac Schonher). Marianne (Sami Yacob-Andrus), who has decided that her 18th birthday is the perfect time to lose her virginity. And Harriet (Angie Tennant), a theatre nerd whose love life has never gone further than a few uninspired kisses. When Lulu discovers Willis has recently made an online dating profile, the machinery of the bed trick is set in motion.

The main action is frequently interrupted by Harriet rehearsing All’s Well That Ends Well, creating a dialogue between the morality of Shakespeare’s time and ours today. Watching Harriet grapple with Shakespeare's troubling text even as her roommates enact their own version becomes a meta examination of our understanding of desire and agency. The play also probes the uncomfortable relationship between passion and manipulation, not only in the moment but when the truth is inevitably revealed.

Luan Schooler’s direction keeps the action moving swiftly, while the cast skillfully meets the demands of the material. Tennant brings the same emotional complexity to Harriet’s questioning as they do to Shakespeare’s poetry. Tran, Yacob-Andrus, and Schonher capture the specific vulnerability of 18-year-olds. And Isaac Lamb and Claire Rigsby, as Marianne’s parents, can both make you laugh and then break your heart in about half a second flat.

The playbill describes THE BED TRICK as a confection with a chewy center, but this undersells it. Yes, the play is genuinely funny, but beneath the sharp wit lies some serious substance that will give you plenty to think about. All might not end well, but we can certainly do better.

THE BED TRICK runs through October 26.