Second Thoughts?

 “Fetal – Your Body is a Battleground,” by Trista Baldwin, performed at Frank Theater, 11/3/23

This is an intense play set on the day Dobbs was decided by the Supreme Court, in an abortion clinic waiting room in Texas.  It becomes the waiting room of a smallish hell. Three women read, flip through magazines and fidget as they wait to be called for their procedures.  One is a lesbian woman who went to bed with some guy she met, and got pregnant and regrets it.  One is an older working woman who already has one child and can’t handle having another.  The last is an inexperienced 15-year old teenager brought up in a religious home, who forged the permission line on her form to avoid dealing with her parents.  

The clinic doctors are never seen, just heard once.  The noises of protesters filter from the outside.  The admitting assistant is a woman who nearly died during her own pregnancy, which motivated her to work at the clinic. She has to read Texas’ long list of so-called negative effects of abortion to each patient before they can meet the doctors. She then morphs into the ‘conscience’ of each individual as they internally wrestle with whether they should have the baby or not. This part is the ‘intense’ part – seeming to highlight the guilt and mixed mind of each woman and especially the girl, who is ghost-ridden by religious visions of sin and transgression, but still determined to go ahead. 

The case, Dobbs – who was the ‘state health officer’ of the reactionary state government of Mississippi – versus Jackson Women’s Health Organization, located in the state capital, was decided by the Supreme Court on June 24, 2022.  Prior to that Texas had a ‘heartbeat’ law that banned abortion after 6 weeks.  Amazingly, all these women are at or prior to six weeks, because it is very difficult to diagnose pregnancy that early. So time is of the essence.

The waiting seems endless, even though there are only 3 patients and in real theater time, the waiting is more than an hour.  The procedure takes from 5-15 minutes on the tiny bean-like fetus with a tail, so what is the hang-up?  At one point it is suggested that this is a fake clinic, which sends a shiver through the audience. The women talk among themselves, mentioning adoption’s pros and cons and everything else.  Details of birth, children and abortion, past and present, are given.  The young woman does not want to have children period, and she is adamant but a bit conflicted.  The older woman is also conflicted, and is irritated that her husband never had that vasectomy he talked about. She had extreme difficulty breastfeeding, in which the cruelty of employers is hinted at.  The girl is new to all this, and distraught at what her parents will think no matter what she does.  This is the scaffolding for their difficult second thoughts.

While every large decision is full of contradictions and indecision, of back and forth, pros and cons, the play’s highlighting of this miserable state is suspect.  It seems to have the effect of increasing guilt about abortion. It is certainly a truism for some women and as a theatrical device, it is very effective.  It is odd that contraception is never mentioned. I won’t reveal what happens next, though what happens seems unreal.  It ends with the four women, who have bonded in the waiting room, now united in their determination to stand up for themselves ‘somehow.’  The ending seems patched on, but that is typical of liberal works that descend into vagueness.  They intend to only 'tell the story.'  Nevertheless it is a very good play about the trauma and hard problems for women caused by the vicious reversal of Roe v. Wade.  See it!

The play runs from 10/27 to 11/19 on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the Vine Arts Building of the Seward neighborhood in Minneapolis.  The May Day Blog has reviewed many prior plays by the Frank Theater – “Things of Dry Hours,” “Love and Information,” “The Cradle Will Rock,” “The Convert,” “Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again,” “The Good Person of Setzuan,” and “The Visit.”  They are usually held in random locations sometimes – an empty grocery store loading dock, an industrial workroom, a rail museum, a boat anchored on the Mississippi, an empty dance hall. The Vine Arts location is their practice space, as they are coming back from the long hiatus of CoVid.  It is one of 3 progressive theaters in Minneapolis, the other two being Mixed Blood and Penumbra. 

Prior blog reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 16 year archive, using these terms:  “Abortion,” ‘sexism,” “feminism,” or “Frank Theater.”   

The Cultural Marxist

11/4/2023