by Stan Jenson

 Have you ever visited a place and loved it, then returned a year or two later and said, “What did I ever see in this place?”  That fear crossed my mind as I attended The Bent Theatre’s current production of The Lincoln Debate.  When the company was launched almost two years ago with this same show, I saw it and absolutely flipped out.  It was witty, informative, amazingly staged and incredibly funny.  Well, my worries were in vain.  The new production has a different looking set and three of the five actors were new, but it still packed at least the same impact it did in its earlier life – and even more!  It is a not-to-be-missed theatrical event combining a smart script, an incredibly talented quintet of actors, and staging so inventive that it feels like whole a new art form.  The limited season is filling up very, very fast and I suggest you buy tickets soon because you might just want to go a second time!

While the rest of us used the pandemic as an excuse to eat potato chips in front of the TV, The Bent’s General Manager, Terry Ray, used the time to research a never-quite-admitted element of Abraham Lincoln’s life.  Why did he share beds with a least two different men for the majority of his adult life?

It is well established that when he was 28, Lincoln walked into a dry goods store hoping to buy a bed and basic furnishings which he then admitted he couldn’t afford. The store’s 23-year-old owner, Joshua Speed, came up with an alternative plan.  He told Lincoln that he had a large room and double bed above the store and he invited the young lawyer to share it with him. Lincoln immediately carried his meager bags upstairs, plopped them on the floor, and stayed for the next four years. After Lincoln moved in, the two men became inseparable, sharing stories, feelings, fears, hopes, dreams --  and a double bed!

Playwright Ray has posited that if these two men were that close and shared a bed where the flimsy mattress was supported by a series of ropes which would almost certainly cause the mattress to sag in the middle, did they in fact share more on those long nights when they wore only nightshirts or even less. 

He found a series of letters that Lincoln wrote to Speed when the latter moved back to the family plantation following his father's death.  Let’s just say that they are incredibly intimate for a pair of buddies! The script makes a point of never guessing what Speed’s responsive letters to Lincoln included because although Speed held onto the ones he received, Abe (or perhaps Mary?) got rid of the ones from Speed.

Ray, the playwright, has used four actors who play four actors getting ready to tell the story.  Ray himself plays a moderator and pretty clearly the author of the play, though a different actor played the role in the first production.  Here’s where director Steve Rosenbaum’s incredible skills come to the fore.  As the four actors – Jason Reale, Alex Price, Aamber Lux Archer and Angela Landis – start to act out the story, an array of props and simple costume accessories always seem to magically be in the right pair of hands at the right time and the actors scurry around the simple set to become background characters as each actor tells their part of the story.  The show moves like a bullet train, but never sacrifices clarity or humor. I have labored over how I could explain to you what happens on stage.  An example would be when Lincoln and Stephen Douglas have a debate, it’s actually a dance-off.  One does a comically exotic step and then the other tries to outdo it.  Incredibly funny as we watch it, but I think a literal explanation of most of the stage business would fail.  The real magic is the synergy of playwright and director always reminding us that these are actors with jealousies and limitations while they lay out evidence that would suggest quite strongly that there wasn’t room for the two roomies to escape each other as they shared a double bed for four years.

Reale primarily plays Lincoln, and with a top hat and the beard he has added this time, he bears an uncanny resemblance to the great man.  Price is usually Joshua Speed and brings huge laughs with his facial reactions to what is being said on other parts of the stage, often channeling Ned Flanders in his sincerity. Every time one of the characters he is playing dies, he rolls his eyes to the audience and immediately flops onto his back.

The two ladies battle over who will play Mary Todd Lincoln which they both assume will be the female lead. Landis is selected and spends most of the play with a fand of flowers across her head.  It seems that Abe’s engagement with Mary was on again and off again for quite a long time, and neither of them ever viewed it as romantic.  Archer, an African American, rebels when she thinks she is going to be asked to play a slave, so instead she earns laughs playing a white plantation foreman.  In fact, her sassy rebelliousness is an ongoing source of hilarity and she’s an actress we want to keep an eye on.

As with all Bent productions, Wilinson stage manages with great effectiveness.  Nick Wass is once again technical director and designed the lighting, sound, and I assume the projections above the stage set which give illustrations of whatever is being talked about on stage. The simple set designed by Jason Reale (yes, the actor playing Lincoln) functions well and allows us to be in virtually any location. He was also the graphic artist and the Lincoln image used in many of the graphics seems to have a bit of a naughty smirk.  Cheryl Lanning, assisted by Cynthia Sterling, handled the costumes.  The moderator is dressed in a smart suit and the four “actors” are all in black.  Each or their outfits is different and probably could have been grabbed from the rack at Kohl’s, but that nails the fact that this is a historical tale being told by modern day individuals. Adding little accessories which are stashed around the set quickly conveys different characters.

Even if the unique evening of theatre is a bit difficult to describe, the strongest message I can pass on to you is to go see it.  This wraps up The Bent’s 2023-2024 season and judging from the full houses that they attract, I’m not the only one eager to see what the next season brings us.

Photos by Jim Cox