by AMY BARRATT

What with all the brouhaha accompanying the Théâtres du monde festival, Joel Fishbane's new play opened almost in secret last week at the Geordie space. It's tough to compete with the best avant-garde companies from all over the world, especially when you're a young company (Pumpkin Theatre) with, shall we say, limited means.

Fishbane is a prolific young playwright - this is his eighth or ninth play - who always does his homework, whether the topic is prostitution in 19th-century New York (Conditions Peculiar to Women) or the life of George Gershwin (Rhapsody). In the case of The Bed Trick, Fishbane has researched the Canadian legal system, particularly as it applies to sexual assault. He has also been reading his Shakespeare. "The bed trick" is a device that turns up in several of the Bard's plays in which one person - always a woman, in fact - sleeps with a man while posing as a different woman.

Fishbane's version of the bed trick turns the sexual tables - a woman sleeps with a man thinking he is someone else. While Shakespeare only ever used the device in comedies, Fishbane here explores how unfunny this type of thing is in real life. Because, hard as it may be to believe, there have been documented cases of this happening.

In the play, Paris (Freya Ravensbergen) is married to Andrew (who never appears). During a costume party at Andrew's brother's house, Paris, troubled by a headache, goes upstairs to lie down. A masked man comes into the room, never speaking, and the two end up having sex. Afterwards, Paris claims she thought the man was her husband. Fitz (Shawn Baichoo), the brother, claims she knew all along it was him; they are both guilty of adultery, he claims, but he is not a rapist. Nevertheless, he finds himself in court, charged with sexual assault. The cast is completed by Judith Baribeau, as his lawyer, and Ian Young as hers.

Baichoo, usually a very likeable actor, plays Fitz as extremely unappealing. As I watched the play, I found it virtually impossible to sympathize with him or to believe his side of the story. I wanted to feel ambiguous, but found myself siding with the woman from the start. The play's title is also partly to blame for this, implying as it does that there has indeed been a deception perpetrated.

But then, Fishbane gives Fitz this line to say: "We're lenient with those we like, and to hell with the assholes." That is the key to what this play is really about… or should be: The theatre audience is in the same position as a jury; both judge people based on what they see, and what we see of Fitz is unattractive on many levels. Anybody would look at him and think, "Why would she sleep with you on purpose?" But the question a jury has to answer is not whether she knew who he was, but whether he thought she knew. Sleeping with your brother's wife is a despicable thing, but if that's all he did, does he deserve to go to prison? That becomes the question.

One more question about the text: Given Fitz's strict Catholicism, even with all the contradictions in him, is it believable that he would keep condoms in his bedside table?

Fishbane is a good enough playwright (and director) that The Bed Trick is worth seeing as is. But he could make it better.

The Bed Trick runs until May 22 at the Geordie Space (4001 Berri), 8pm evenings And Saturday matinée at 2:30pm, $12–$15, 931-5449

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