“Bedroom Farce” is a play about arguments and kisses, about food in bed and losing the ability to embrace the one that used to get you hot. It’s about feeling beautiful, marital challenge, and domestic love; it’s about honesty and the struggle and success of this virtue infiltrating the bedroom.

This comedy lit the Dibden stage Nov. 5-8. The play was originally written by Alan Ayckbourn and performed first in 1975. Professor of the Performing Arts department Russell Longtin adapted the work, with JSC senior Dakotah Senesac as the assistant director.

One of the play’s biggest strengths was the set, made up of three bedrooms. Despite limited space, the bedrooms felt alive and open, and although right next to each other, private and intimate when needed. The lighting helped create this.

JSC’s rendition of “Farce” starred Mackenzie Brown and Cody Logan as middle aged, greying couple Deila and Ernest, Colton White and Taylor Brown as Malcolm and Kate, the newly moved in lovers who cutely hide each other’s shoes and desire a long life together, Shawn Weibel and Danielle Godjikian as Nick and Jan, the possessors of the third bed and biting sarcasm towards one another, and Thomas Gunn and Rachael Garnjost as Trevor and Susannah, the couple without a bedroom on set, and whose failing relationship is the talk and tension that invites audiences into the private lives of these four couples.

The room to the audience’s left brought some of the most feisty humor and endearing frustration. Fish and toast crumbed the bed where Deila and Ernest rested, and the husband often commented on the leaky roof and the wonders of his current (which he’s read five times) novel. The two young actors who played this older couple walked with convincing slight-hunches, and interacted well as an old married couple. Their relationship was the most believable.

Jan appears in her bedroom with her bedridden, whiney partner Nick, who for much of the show cries about his crippled back, falling out of bed and being stranded on the floor, unable to do anything but scream, “Help!” Nick’s over-the-top cries of pain received many laughs from the crowd. More importantly, Nick offered a physical expression of the emotional backaches that the characters of “Farce” are dealing with.

Jan leaves her house alone, ending up in the center bedroom for Malcom and Kate’s housewarming party.
I enjoyed Jan’s character because she was straightforward, a bit cold, and not over the top and comical as some other characters were.

Malcolm was a lover and a fighter. His desire to please his wife was matched by his loud anger that he threw at Trevor over and over. The majority of the scenes between these two showed Trevor wincing under the yell of Malcolm, who was super pissed that Trevor and Susannah brought their marital drama to the dinner party.

The character of Susannah, plagued by feelings of worthlessness, was hysterical and desperate. I couldn’t help but feel sympathetic and wish that her trouble with Trevor was solved, due in no small part to Garnjost’s performance.

After the fight between Trevor and Susannah, more arguments and mingling ensue. The stage seemed to become larger, with Susannah visiting her in-laws, and Trevor showing up at Jan’s where he has a heart to heart with the still-in-pain Nick.
One of my favorite scenes is when Susannah sits on the foot of Deila’s bed, and the two talk about what makes a relationship work, emotionally and especially physically, while Earnest awkwardly breaks up the conversation with his banter.

Another honest scene was when Kate brings to light the role of sex in a relationship, and how, if she is being completely honest, can become bored with it from time to time. Malcolm’s anger is surely reunited at this possible boredom. Many real life couples might benefit if they implement the openness that some of the “Farce” characters try in their relationships.

I liked watching the play for the unknowingness of it. I couldn’t guess which couples might survive and which would head too far south. The characters were imperfect, real enough for anyone to relate to. I could see myself as any one of those couples, and wondering how the hell I’m so lucky and so screwed in said relationship.