The final scene of Bedtrick takes place on a summer’s day on the grand country estate Wilton House. On its broad terrace Shakespeare’s company presents his woodland comedy As You Like It for a noble company, including newly crowned King James I. The preceding years have been fraught, with political unrest during the waning days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Essex rebellion, the Queen’s death, and the plague. Though plague has not been vanquished in London, Wiltshire is fresh and healthy. Despite recent losses, especially of the almost mythic queen referred to as Gloriana, zest has returned. Thus does Bedtrick qualify as a summer read.
An unusual love story, the plot focuses on a marriage of convenience between two women, one of them convincingly masquerading as a man and neither expecting to marry a female. What kind of union can develop between them? Sex, convention, disguise, and most of all theatre weave through the story. The protagonist Alexander—Sander—Cooke plays major female roles in an era where only boys and men could perform on the London stage. Hence the necessity of her male persona.
Shakespeare’s plays from 1599 to 1603 reflect the dis-ease of the time, from Hamlet and Troilus and Cressida to the unsettling comedies, All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure.
But at Wilton House everyone returns to happier, seemingly simpler, times with this performance of the romantic As You Like It featuring Shakespeare’s most beguiling female character Rosalind, played by Sander Cooke. A bright future is anticipated by all as King James and Queen Anne lead the post-play dancing on the broad lawns. A summertime mood prevails, love and hope in the long English dusk to the tune of ‘It Was a Lover and his Lass.’
Bedtrick is available online and through your local indy book store. From Cuidono Press, 2021. https://cuidono.com
Note: The current Wilton House in Wiltshire, though a lovely place to visit, was rebuilt in the seventeenth century, so little of the house depicted in Bedtrick remains.