Dystopian writers such as Octavia E. Butler and Margaret Atwood tend to eschew the title of prophet. If their works of fiction seem eerily prescient, it’s because the authors have observed contemporary or historical trends and imagined how their logical conclusions might play out. This truism holds up with Arlene Hutton’s “Blood of the Lamb,” a compact thriller about reproductive rights now making its Chicago premiere with Promethean Theatre Ensemble under the direction of Anna C. Bahow.
Hutton, an American playwright, characterized her play as speculative fiction when she completed the first draft several months before the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade. Four years on, the two-hander captures the real-life bureaucratic chaos and legal limbo that have followed. In Hutton’s telling, unseen male politicians sleep peacefully while two women navigate the life-threatening consequences of the men’s decisions. This all goes down in a very Beckettian setting, over one interminable night in a nondescript airport conference room, rendered in harsh whites and grays by scenic designer Amy C. Gilman.
We don’t learn the names of the characters until later in the play — underscoring the sense that they could be any women — but for the sake of convenience, I’ll name them here. Nessa, a first-time expectant mother, was on a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to New York when she suffered a medical emergency that diverted her plane to Dallas. Val, a middle-aged lawyer with five children of her own, has been assigned to Nessa’s unprecedented legal case. Namely, as the penny drops early on, Val is representing Nessa’s unborn, and now deceased, baby.
This arresting premise, which seems plausible in light of the fetal personhood movement, stems from a freshly enacted, fictional Texas statute granting citizenship to Nessa’s fetus. With abortion outlawed in that state, it’s now a felony for Nessa to leave Texas with the intent to terminate her nonviable pregnancy. If she were to do so, she’d be charged with abuse of a corpse — to be clear, the corpse in her womb that’s likely to cause a deadly infection if carried to full term.
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Promethean’s production features two alternating casts. At the performance I saw, Meghann Tabor played Nessa and Delia Ford was Val; on other dates, Heather Dennis and Kirsten D’Aurelio respectively take on these roles. As Bahow explains in her director’s note, “That randomness is the point.” Again, these could be any two women among millions.
From a dramatic standpoint, this anonymity has its pros and cons. While Hutton and Bahow’s choices successfully evoke the quality of a dark fable, they come at the cost of deeper development and emotional engagement with the characters. The snippets we learn about Nessa’s personal life elicit empathy, but she’s a rather one-note character. Val, with her pious platitudes, matronly apparel and cross necklace (costumes by Rachel M. Sypniewski), initially comes across as a stock conservative Texan, though we later get some complicating glimpses of how she handles herself as an accomplished professional woman in male-dominated settings. I came away wanting to know more about both of these women.
This thriller also could use a bit more juice in terms of structure and pacing. In the beginning, the tension builds quite well as Nessa tries to understand her terrifying circumstances, but after the first major reveal, there aren’t many twists to keep the audience on their toes. Several of Val’s interludes — filling out endless online forms, consulting with unhelpful government lawyers over the phone — convey the absurdity of dealing with bureaucracy in a high-stakes situation, but they occasionally slow the pacing. I enjoyed the ambiguity of a certain plot development later in the play, but it could have landed more of a punch if these earlier issues were addressed.
While “Blood of the Lamb” doesn’t fully deliver on its fascinating hook, it’s still a provocative and timely work. Hutton thoughtfully explores the gender dynamics of reproductive rights issues by making Val a not wholly unsympathetic middle-woman between the men in power and one of the women impacted by their machinations. Watching the lawyer try to wrap her head around the ever-shifting legal landscape brings to mind the chaotic fallout of the Alabama Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling that frozen embryos are children — events took place after the play’s premiere at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Hutton, like other writers of speculative (or perhaps not so speculative) fiction, may not be a prophet, but she’s certainly a keen observer of modern society.
Emily McClanathan is a freelance critic.
Review: “Blood of the Lamb” (3 stars)
When: Through Oct. 3
Where: The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Tickets: $35 at 773-697-3830 and prometheantheatre.org
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