Roe V Wade might be the law of the land now, but playwright Lisa Loomer’s new play “Roe” suggests that it’s always been on shaky ground. Directed by Vanessa Stalling, ‘Roe’ makes its area debut at Goodman Theatre with a big cast of familiar faces.
In “Roe” Lisa Loomer pieces together the life stories of both the plaintiff (Jane Roe, played by Kate Middleton) and the ambitious young lawyer Sarah Weddington (Christina Hall) who argued the case all the way to the supreme court.
Like the old telephone game, stories have a way of changing from telling to telling. The origin story of Roe V Wade is complicated and varies depending on who you ask. Lisa Loomer digs deep into the hearsay and rumors to compose what feels like a thorough account. When she’s unsure, or she found conflicting versions of the same event, she uses character asides to clarify. The effect brings a humorous tone to what could be a dreary subject matter for some.
The play is a non-linear, often scattery, look at the process it took to win the case as well as the checkered past of Roe, later outed as Norma McCorvey. While many American women champion the right to choose, it’s hard to avoid the exploitation narrative that would ultimately lead McCorvey to a tabloidy life in the years following the case.
What could sound like a living history report, is anything but. Instead, Loomer’s use of structure and theatrical storytelling make this play leap off the stage. She’s good at finding the heart of the historic figures she’s writing of. The cast also brings a lot to the material. There’s something tragic and relatable to Kate Middleton’s performance. She really gets into the psyche of someone easily taken by the whims of the world around them, and sadly getting taken advantage by them too. Her transition from Jane Roe plaintiff to internationally known figure and subsequent rejection of abortion says a lot about the state of reproductive and religious education in America.
“Roe” is not a play about abortion, that’s only part of the story. The irony is that the famous plaintiff never did get the abortion she sought. As Sarah Weddington once argued, this isn’t a case about being pro-abortion. This is a case about a woman’s right to decide what is best for her own body.
Roe V Wade changed America, but even almost 50 years later it’s still being challenged by the religious right. Abortion was legalized on a national level as a result of the case, but when you include all the stipulations, its hard to call it entirely legalized. In fact, some states today have less than five clinics that perform abortions. Every election cycle, more and more restrictions are made on abortion. “Roe” makes a case for why we cannot have collective amnesia on the facts of this case. It serves as an education as well as a rallying cry to anyone in America who calls themselves a feminist.
