Yesterday, I saw Arlene Hutton's new play Blood of the Lamb, an eerie look at the human costs of legislators trying to extend state control over the public in ever increasing ways.
In a program note, director Margot Bordelon said that Hutton wrote the piece as "a work of speculative fiction, but it's grown closer to realism with each passing day." In the past two years, several states have passed laws controlling the bodies of their citizens with often draconian punishments, making Hutton's play shockingly relevant.
To say the play is about abortion would be inaccurate. The formerly pregnant character, Nessa, has already lost her much desired and anticipated baby before the play begins. Now, however, she carries the body of her dead child inside of her, and with a new state law banning medical procedures that could be construed as an outrage to a corpse, she is held in legal limbo in a Dallas airport.
With Nessa is a lawyer, Val, who represents not Nessa's rights, but the rights of her dead fetus. Given the severe risks of carrying a dead body inside of you, anti-abortion advocates' contention that they are "pro-life" seems a bitter mockery in this case. Proponents of "states rights" when it comes to abortion also seem in this case to overlook the rights of residents of other states to return to their homes without being detained and surveilled.
A feel-good play this is not, but it tackles some difficult subject matter with humanity and understanding. Even Val the lawyer is portrayed not as a clear-cut villain, but as a well-intentioned woman trying to do her job in a world that is looking ever more like Theatre of the Absurd.
Blood of the Lamb was commissioned by B Street Theatre and had a reading at Centenary Stage before arriving Off-Broadway. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out soon.
