Strange Bedfellows

About the show

The setting is the parlor of Senator Cromwell's mansion on Nob Hill, San Francisco, during October 1896. The storyline takes place amidst the election campaign for that year, in which William McKinley was elected president. Act I Scene 1 (Afternoon of a sunny October day.) The residents of the Senator's mansion, the Cromwells, the Hamptons, and the two servants, appear one-by-one to introduce the audience to their personalities. Lillian says Vincent has asked her to ride on a tandem bicycle with him. The Senator forbids it unless a chaperone is there. When Mrs. Gimble and Mrs. Worley arrive, the Senator mistakes them for suffragettes and rails at them. But they have come because Addie is a leader in their anti-suffrage group. Vincent also visits, as the household scurries about awaiting Matthew's return from Washington, D.C. to campaign. When Matthew does appear, he brings a surprise: his wife of two weeks, the famous suffragette, Clarissa Blynn. (Curtain) Act I Scene 2 (The following Sunday morning.) Ling stops Lillian from pedaling off to distribute fliers for a suffrage meeting. Her parents are horrified at the bloomers she wears, given to her by Clarissa. "Bifurcated abominations" bellows the senator, who blames Matt for not controlling his wife. Clarissa upsets Addie by revealing her anti-suffrage group is partly funded by a liquor ring and the Barbary Coast brothels, who fear being shut down if women could vote. Julia is less surprised, and Clarissa asks why she does not support suffrage? (Curtain) Act II Scene 1 (Tuesday afternoon.) Mrs. Gimble, Mrs. Worley, and Addie hold a meeting of their anti-suffrage group in the parlor, which Julia also attends. They are surprised when another woman comes to join them: a Mrs. Sparker. A businesswoman of sorts, the other women are flummoxed as they gradually begin to comprehend the nature of her industry. Big Tillie, as her gals call her, is opposed to suffrage for practical economic reasons. As she explains, Addie and her friends grow more dismayed with their new ally, while Julia is almost amused. After the meeting breaks up, Addie and Julia are ready to switch sides, but fear their husbands' wrath. Clarissa tells them about the old Greek play Lysistrata, and suggests a modern revival right there in the Senator's home. (Curtain) Act II Scene 2 (Some hours later.) Gifford and Matthew commiserate with each other over the unpredictability of female behavior down through the ages. Addie attempts to entice Gifford in order to refuse him, but eventually finds it more effective to withhold his racing news and cocktails. Julia, wiser from the start, serves up the Senator a meager supper of unappetizing plainness, "for his health". Lillian, given an adulterated version of the strategy, torments Vincent, while Matthew gets the full carrot-and-stick approach from Clarissa. The situation comes to a crisis when the bumbling Mayor Tibbett pays a call and inadvertently lets slip the Senator's unwitting financial involvement in the Barbary Coast businesses. (Curtain) Act III (Still later.) (Curtain)