Chicken or egg? Does pop culture proactively numb us to the horrors to come, or merely reflect changes that are already happening? Take the three (arguably) most popular movies of 2007: the unintended-pregnancy-fests Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress. Through the medium of politically regressive Hollywood flicks, we discover that the range of choice for battered wives, single mothers, and teenagers now spans keeping the kid (joyfully) or (tearfully) playing cornfield for a barren couple. We’re taught that it’s bad to say the “A” word (and offered the high-larious “schmushmortion” in its place), and asked to believe that women for whom abortion might be the best financial and emotional choice, would simply pass it up without thought, discussion, or process.
In other news, 2007 also brought us a Supreme Court ruling upholding the first federal abortion ban our country has seen since abortion was first legalized.
So when performer Samantha Chanse, in the character of a Kevlar-vested abortion doctor, cries “You don’t know an apocalypse when you see one!” — is she speaking to a malaise that she worries will overcome us, or is she reflecting our blindness now?
Either way, Chanse’s first full-length solo performance, Lydia’s Funeral Video, is a powerful antidote to last year’s choice-pulping. Set in a near-future U.S. that bans all abortions after the first 28 days, Lydia’s Funeral Video takes the natural narrative arc of conception-pregnancy-birth and changes it to conception-pregnancy-abortion deadline.
The play also makes the embryo a speaking character (played by a string of IKEA lights). Of course, the embryo is merely a product of the pregnant Lydia’s subconscious, coming to her in her dreams to tell her that she is dying and must make a video to show at her funeral. To complete the video, Lydia is to perform three tasks: talk to her estranged mother and immature lover, do three sets of stand-up comedy at a local open mic, and terminate the pregnancy.