Tuesday, June 22, 2010

SO YOU'RE DOING A PLAY ABOUT ABORTION...

Well, pretty much anyone involved in this production will tell you that it's not ABOUT abortion - it just has an abortion in it. I guess that dealing with the subject in such a casual manner is controversial in its own right, though, which is probably what makes it all so interesting.

In case you just came in (or haven't been following us on Facebook, etc.), the production is Jeannine's Abortion: A Play in One Trimester, and it's a collaboration with Old Kent Road, written by Eric Bland and directed by Hope Cartelli, featuring a cast of a half-dozen fresh young faces and one grizzled curmudgeon (i.e., me). It opens this Thursday as part of The Brick's Too Soon Festival, and there are a number of reasons you should see it.

However, I will hand the reins over to the playwright himself, who has crafted the following platonic dialogue with a platonic audience member describing the what-the-what about the show:
PERSON: Is this play about abortion?
ME: Someone has an abortion in it, yes.
PERSON: …Why?
ME: Because. That happens.
PERSON: Is the play funny?
ME: Sometimes.
PERSON: Why?
ME: Because that happens.
PERSON: Is it political?
ME: Man is a political animal.
PERSON: That’s sexist.
ME: Like the world?
PERSON: You’re silly.
ME: Your face is silly.
PERSON: Hah. I’m not even wearing a face. You don’t know who I am.
ME: No one knows anyone, do they?
PERSON: Tragic.
ME: Heroic.
PERSON: Look at my fingernail. It’s about to fall off. I got it caught in a lawn-mower yesterday. I guess, knowing that, all you can really say is, I was lucky.
ME: I love you.
PERSON: I love the idea of you.
ME: Would you like to take the idea of me out dancing?
PERSON: Well, I should remind you, about my finger, so, factoring that in, break-dancing might be out of the question, but most forms—
ME: Salsa.
PERSON: Now you’re talking.
ME: No, now I am.
PERSON: Now you’re not. You’ve grown quiet just as a plant on a brick wall or a fence—such as ivy—grows, not so much ‘quiet’ as…anywhere.
(Me nods.)

fIN
Tickets are available HERE.

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