BEDROOM FARCE, A New Comedy, Debuts at The PIT

 

It's late at night and a couple are trying to get some sleep in their bedroom, but the man simply can't doze off. Instead, thoughts about life, the past and future race through his mind, keeping him awake at night. But what if the people in those thoughts came alive? What if that bedroom filled with person after person, as the ritual of going to sleep instead turned into a virtual reunion?

That's the premise of Bedroom Farce, a fast-paced, entertaining new comedy by Claude Solnik where we see the people that fill a man's thoughts as he tries to go to bed. Instead of falling asleep, people in his life surround him in what turns into a sort of party.

In this new comedy, running at The Pit, August 5-7 as part of a longer series called Manhattan Myths, figures from ex-girlfriends to friends, parents and others appear in a couple's bedroom that grows busier and busier. The man's girlfriend can't see these figures, as he tries to keep the chaos of this crowded room a secret.

Nikki Reed directs this new show, debuting at the Pit as part of their summer theater offerings, about what it would be like if people in our life and our thoughts came to life while we were simply trying to get some rest.

"Are they ghosts, or memories or spirits?" Nikki Reed, directing the show, said. "The answer is a little bit of all of those, but they aren't just in his mind. They're there and we watch this group come to life, as a bedroom fills with people from this person's past."

Gregory Allen plays T.J., whose life seems to flash before his eyes, while Aileen Chang plays his fiancée Anne, who simply tries to get some sleep amid this gathering of ghosts or memories or spirits.

Elise Wilkes plays Judy, Monica Park plays Nathalie and Lisa Chinai plays Jennifer, three girlfriends from the past.

Sandford Stokes plays the father, Joanna Newman plays the mother and Dominic Wong portrays the grandfather.

Joanna Newman also is the assistant to the director. Lights and sound are by Marsh Shugart and costumes are by Wendy Tonken.

"It's not really the ghosts of girlfriends past," Solnik said of some of the characters who assemble in the bedroom. "We all have people who walk around in our heads, people who mean something to us. In this play, we get to see them come to life, meet each other and talk."

In Bedroom Farce, being presented as the second part of a series at the Pit called Manhattan Myths, we see character after character arrive, interacting with Gregory Allen as T.J., who not only acts, but reacts to the figures in this unplanned reunion.

We see the relationships resume as he tries to figure out how these people have managed to arrive in the present and as he tries to keep this circus under control.

"He can't figure out how they got here," Solnik said of the cast of characters who arrive. "Various possibilities go through his mind until, at the end of the play, we find out exactly why and how."

Bedroom Farce, Aug. 5-7, The Pit, 154 W. 29th St., 212-244-1722. $17 in advance, $20 at the door, Friday August 5 at 6:30 p.m., Saturday August 6 at 3 p.m. and Sunday August 7, at 7 p.m.

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