Making Comedy About Abortion, Watching the Supreme Court


After finishing the preview of a one-hour stand-up show on reproductive rights, “Oh My God, A Show About Abortion,” Comedian Alison Leiby was finishing dinner when she checked her phone Monday night.

He had dozens of messages about breaking news that a Supreme Court draft had been leaked. idea the court showed that seemed ready to topple Roe v. Wade abolishes the constitutional right to abortion in the United States.

A self-described abortion rights activist, Leiby is perhaps best known for “The Marvelous Mrs. “It was an absolute confrontation with reality, it’s no longer theoretical,” he said in an interview, known for his work as co-producer of Maisel.

As Leiby began to consider what this potential decision would mean for the country, she also realized that she needed to start thinking about how she could reshape her show, a 70-minute stand-up show about her own unwanted pregnancy and how it happened. Solved it with a trip to Planned Parenthood on a Saturday afternoon. He made the news at the beginning of the show at a preview at the Cherry Lane Theater in New York on Tuesday evening.

“I will not ignore real elephant In the room,” Leiby said on Tuesday, thanking the person behind the lonely laughter in the audience for playing the word game.

“I’m not changing anything in response to the news, but I understand your feelings towards it may differ,” Leiby said. “If something’s funny, not funny, cathartic – feel it. That’s true. I’m not here dancing for applause. We’re in this together.”

The news that the court may be on the verge of overthrowing Roe, leads to sudden abortion bans Driving some states and others to impose bans and restrictions sounds like theaters and movie theaters in New York City and around the nation are offering abortion-related works.

performances in Atlanta “Roe,” A play by Lisa Loomer focused on the plaintiff in the landmark case and the attorney defending it before the Supreme Court begins Friday. Metrograph Theater in New York that same day sherry It is dedicated to films that touch on or explore abortion, including Josef von Sternberg’s 1931 drama “An American Tragedy” and the 1987 romantic comedy “Dirty Dancing.” And this summer, a small nonprofit will have theatrical premiere in Chicago. “Roe vs USA” a game billed as “giving a voice to the women who made the choice.”

On the night of Leiby’s show in the West Village, a play that looks at abortion from a very different window, Scheduled to be held at a theater in Midtown: “Oh Gosnell” is about Kermit Gosnell, a doctor convicted Murder in 2013 after late-term abortions. The case has become a rallying call for the anti-abortion movement. Phelim McAleer, an Irish-born filmmaker and producer, said he saw Leiby’s show being billed as an “abortion comedy” and decided to counter this by making a play about Gosnell that took its text from a grand jury report and trial transcripts. wanted to give audiences an “alternative perspective”.

The show faced challenges: The theater it originally planned to use was withdrawn, and two of its seven actors left shortly before previews began.

Intent on keeping the game going in its new location, McAleer produced documentaries questioning the opposition. break, and said he was working on a movie about Hunter Biden—still processing Supreme Court news. “This definitely means the Gosnell story is more relevant than ever, and abortion-related games are more relevant than ever before,” she said.

The two shows by Leiby and McAleer could not be more different. One is a comedy about a hassle-free abortion procedure suing for wide abortion access, and the other is a graphic play about a notorious abortion provider whose clinic has been described as a “house of horror” by prosecutors. But Leiby and McAleer share a similar purpose: to talk about abortion and get audiences to listen.

“Oh My God, A Show About Abortion,” – presented by comedian Ilana Glazer and directed by Lila Neugebauer – is scheduled to run until June 4. After seeing an earlier iteration of Leiby’s show, Jason Zinoman Wrote in The New York Times “Without the slightest bit of didacticity, he finds humor in the messy, confusing, sometimes banal experience of an unwanted pregnancy and abortion.”

The show tells its story: St. The story of a 35-year-old comedy writer who finds out she is pregnant in a hotel bathroom in St. She is so sure of her disinterest in having children that in action she compares her eggs to Fabergé’s (“feminine yet decorative”) eggs. When Leiby first mentioned Planned Parenthood, a group of young female public health students in the audience burst into applause.

Zoe Verzani, 24, a member of the group, wore a pink Planned Parenthood t-shirt to the show this week, said she thought Leiby had gotten the material right.

“He acknowledged that it was his own experience,” Verzani said, but it wasn’t the only experience, he said, “making room for other people’s experiences.”

Leiby calls the show for more discussion about abortion. “We only talk about abortion when it’s in crisis, when it’s out of law,” she says. “The more openly and honestly we talk about abortion, the less catastrophic it will be.”

Because, he states, it’s not a disaster for him – it’s a frustrating inconvenience. That’s what made him feel a surge of guilt after hearing the Supreme Court news. As a New Yorker, her access to abortion is unlikely to change, for example for women in Missouri, where Leiby learned she was pregnant in 2019 – stand to lose Nearly all abortion access if the draft of a leaked Supreme Court opinion becomes reality.



Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *