Arian Moayed and Carla Gugino, two seasoned theater actors, walked onstage Wednesday night knowing next to nothing about the play they were about to perform.

They didn’t know who their characters were; they didn’t know the plot; and they certainly didn’t know the lines, which would be fed to them through earpieces.

Gugino had asked the director, Ben Kidd, for a little hint: Could they at least be told where the story was set?

“It’s just much more fun if you don’t know,” he told her.

As the play they were starring in, “Good Sex,” began the narrative was gradually revealed to them. They were playing ex-lovers, reunited in the apartment that they had once shared, revisiting their past intimacy and resisting the pull of what felt like an inevitable recoupling.

Stage directions were also piped through their earpieces: “Look at him.” “Sit on the sofa.” “And… kiss.”
“You’re giving a lot of trust over,” Moayed said before taking the stage. “I don’t know what words are going to come out of my mouth.”