←Recommendations of The Bed Trick

THE BED TRICK is one of the most raw and honest plays that I have ever had the pleasure of seeing. The show doesn't preach - rather, it examines and critiques the old bed trick trope through a deeply emotional lens. The characters Blevins has created for us are uncomfortably real, and force us to examine ourselves, our past mistakes, and our relationships to consent, gender roles, and societal expectations. Nothing is black and white, nothing is right or wrong --- everything is simply human.

It can be hard to create a piece of theater which interrogates the screwed-up unspoken values of theater while still remaining vividly theatrical - but don't tell that to Blevins, who makes it look absurdly easy. THE BED TRICK takes the disturbing trope of its title, flips our moral assumptions about its archetypal characters completely on their ear, then burrows into the psychology of three damaged characters - all trapped by the values of the world that gave us the bed trick in the first place - to devastating effect.

Blevins’ smart and cutting play brings new light on the old trope of the bed trick. Taking elements from Measure for Measure, the piece examines consent and lack thereof in thoughtful, sharp dialogue. The piece is bookended by a magic showesque prologue and epilogue, which are tricks of their own. The former lures you in, preparing you for a fun show, and the latter switches it up, implicating the audience as much as the performers. It leaves you thinking well after the play is after. I cannot wait to see a full production!

blevins's the bed trick critiques a classic shakespearean trope and calls to question what "the other woman" goes through. with perfect pacing and quick wit, this play invites you into a world where nothing is black and white. it is suspenseful, hilarious, heartbreaking, and human. highly highly recommend.

“The best way to get a man to go away is to have sex with him.”

I don’t know if that’s a quote or even a saying. But it’s freqently true.

But not always…

In this clever story of narrative archetyles hatching a sexual switcheroo, Blevins examines the ages-old trope while turning it on its head with unexpectedly real, deeply complicated people.

The tactic itself is legally referred to as Rape By Deception and it is a crime. Blevins is the first writer I’ve encoutered to point this out explictitly.

An essential play for many reasons!

What starts off as a hysterical satire of contemporary sexual mores becomes a heartbreakingly piquant and sad exploration of two flawed people whose relationship could never work out. Blevins’s dialogue is sharp and specific, and she has a keen-eyed yet unsentimental perspective of her characters. This is not a play that will make you comfortable. It’s not supposed to. It succeeds in making you contemplate the role of sex and intimacy in our lives.

From its tongue in cheek introduction to its spine-tingling, chilling conclusion, The Bed Trick is powerful, incisive and engrossing. Playwright Jillian Blevins plays out a Shakespearean device to its dramatic conclusion and leaves the audience to draw its own conclusions about the fraught morality of it all. Unrequited love, desire, and the relationship between sex and self-worth are all explored with careful nuance and dramatic heft. Excellent, important work that should be staged as soon and as often as possible!

THE BED TRICK critiques one of Shakespeares's most unquestioned comic devices. We are told by the protagonists in Shakespeare's plays that the men duped by this conceit "deserve it." Jillian Blevins's play highlights the problems of that sentiment and gives us characters who must deal with the implications and fallout of the devastating "trick." The tone shifts beautifully from sarcasm to seriousness and back, making the message all the more biting as a result.

This play should be produced everywhere Shakespeare's plays abound!

BRAVA!

Marvelous! An astonishing update on the literary device deployed by Boccaccio and Chaucer and dated by the time Shakespeare used it. Jillian Blevins explores fully and with great psychological insight just how unfunny and serious the bed trick is, something that seems lost on readers and audiences in years gone by. Or maybe it's "funny" in this THE BED TRICK because as the three characters get closer to the truth, it tickles the funny bone of how strange is human need. Now I can appreciate the weird grandeur of Measure for Measure more thanks to this magnificent work!