The hilarity and heartbreak of being a person who has to go to the obstetrician.
Women have stories. And this Women’s Month, the Davis Repertory Theatre is putting those stories—of childbirth, of periods and yes, of abortion—centerstage.
GYNECOLOGOS was inspired by the Dobbs decision to reverse Roe V. Wade, severely restricting abortion rights across the country. The project itself is a work of performance ethnography. The performance will be created using a method Oona Hatton, the Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director, developed at San Jose State University. It’s the fruition of months of hard work and organization, with interviewers listening to the stories of women from our area, and performers crafting those stories for stage.
“Whether an individual believes in the right to an abortion or not, it is truly disheartening that so much of the public conversation about women’s reproductive health centers the voices and opinions of men,” Hatton said. GYNECOLOGOS, she said, is an affirmation of the knowledge women have about their own bodies—in spite of the shame, doubt, dismissal, and disbelief they may receive from people around them.
The mission of GYNECOLOGOS lines up with that of the Repertory Theatre itself: changing systems of power through live performances and inspiring artists and audiences to work toward a more equitable society.
“While the ensemble has not yet selected the specific stories that will appear in the performance, we know it will include true accounts of hilarity and heartbreak related to menstruation, birth control, childbirth, miscarriage, abortion, menopause, gender-affirming care, and more,” Hatton said. “We all have so many stories to tell, and we hope GYNECOLOGOS will lay the foundation for women to continue sharing their experiences.”
GYNECOLOGOS will be performed Saturday March 18 at 1p in the Blanchard Room at the Mary L. Stephens Library. Click here for more information.
