Off-Broadway theater will feature abortion-centered play

Critically acclaimed Director Margot Bordelon discusses production that started out as absurd and became a parallel of what's happening in America

Several dramatic productions centered on abortion have been staged in the last few years, and a new one that will run in New York started as a dystopian play that became plausible with the current events surrounding it. 

Blood of the Lamb, which was written by Arlene Hutton, focuses on a conversation between two women, with one of them stuck in Texas needing a life-saving abortion. The other character is a lawyer who represents the interests of the unborn fetus, with very little concern for the welfare of the mother. It will premiere at 59E59, an Off-Broadway theatre, on Sept. 14 and continue until Oct. 20. The cast features Johanna Day playing Val and Meredith Garretson playing Nessa. 

Director Margot Bordelon spent 20 minutes over the phone discussing the play's characters, actors, production, and premise. 

“What's been really interesting is, over the course of the year that it's been out in the world, it's felt like it's becoming closer and closer to real life with each passing day,” Bordelon said. “So what once felt more on the end of absurdity now really does feel more like realism.” 

Hutton is best known for Last Train to Nibroc, the first FringeNYC production to transfer off-Broadway. This play won the Critics Circle Award at the 2024 Adelaide Festival Fringe. Bordelon is a New York-based director specializing in new work and has a penchant for feminist productions. 

The two main characters are Nessa, a pregnant New Yorker flying home from Los Angeles, and Val, a Dallas-based lawyer who works for the state of Texas. The play begins with courtesies exchanged between characters and then transitions to Nessa telling her account of her flight and the foggy memory of how she got stuck in Dallas. She discovers that she lost her baby after passing out and finding herself in a hospital. At first, she thinks Val is there to help her, but soon discovers she is the fetus’ attorney. 

The conflict rests with Nessa’s desire to leave to get necessary medical care, with Val resisting what she sees as an effort to protect the rights of personhood for the unborn. 

The premise may have been conceived as far-fetched. But as readers of my newsletter know, this scenario is plausible. In Idaho, they have flown a woman out of the state via helicopter once a week this year for emergency abortions. Texas women joined a lawsuit challenging the state’s abortion laws because they couldn’t get the care they needed. And the possibility of women being punished for getting an abortion is a very real possibility, as we’ve seen in England. 

There are some intriguing things about the play’s construction to highlight. Throughout this past year, I’ve read extensively on playwriting and encountered theories on developing dialogue effectively and for maximum effect on an audience. There’s a concept I read about called knots of emotion, which are parts of dialogue that are generally longer than the declarative and inquisitive shorter lines that came before. These parts of the play are typically packed with emotion that ties together all the themes built in the audience’s mind in the lead-up. 

I saw knots of emotion come toward the play’s end, which I don’t want to spoil for readers or viewers. But it features a speech from Nessa that is sometimes imploring and, at others, ruminative and symbolic. That part marks the characters' final transformation as they engage each other’s thoughts and beliefs. 

“Over the course of an hour, Nessa becomes more human to her,” Bordelon said. 

Hopefully, more art like this will further humanize women who find themselves in a situation where they want or need an abortion. 

“For me, ultimately, the play is also about the power of human connection and the need for empathy and reason over dogma,” Bordelon said. “And from a feminist perspective, I also think it's about sisterhood.”