Sometimes things aren't deja vu. The last time playwright Paula Kamen and director Janel Winter teamed up, the production of Seven Dates With Seven Writers was one of the funniest and most poignant plays of the season. Unfortunately, with their new, ambitious production of Jane: Abortion And The Underground, this isn't the case. There are still some fine moments and scenes in the play, but things don't move at a fast clip the way Seven Dates did.
Instead, everything is prolonged and drawn out (running time is something like 2 1/2 hours). Things are reiterated, or characters unnecessarily repeat lines and exclamations several times (and the first time we heard it was more than enough). But because of the subject matter and the original research involved, it's an important and intriguing failure, a story that needs to be heard, in whatever shape, way or form. "Jane" was a group of women who in the days before Roe vs Wade took things into their own hands - literally - who learned how to perform quick and safe abortions for women who needed them. It was a grassroots organization that provided an alternative to the backroom abortions that endangered the lives of many women who had no other options. Kamen found some of the original members and interviewed them, putting their stories together into a play. And there's no doubt their stories are fascinating (proving the adage that fact is stranger than fiction) -- it's hard to believe that things really happened the way they did, and it's commendable on Kamen's part that she documented it all. One just wishes she'd been a little more selective, and that Winter directed things at a less leisurely pace.
The women's ensemble, too, could have been a tighter group in terms of timing, bringing it all together as a more meaningful whole. Yet as a brave effort, despite its lack of bravura acting, it's an important message Jane has to offer, and kudos to Green Highway Theater for bringing it to the attention of the Chicago theatergoing public.
