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Theatre Eddys

San Francisco Bay Area Theater Reviews

Roe

March 8, 2022 by Eddie Reynolds Leave a Comment

Roe

Lisa Loomer

Los Altos Stage Company

 

Kelly Hudson

Almost fifty years after Justice Blackmun announced the Supreme Court’s 7-2 decision and as a new set of justices are staged in 2022 to announce new decisions that could all but reverse that landmark decision, nothing still divides this country more than Roe vs. Wade.  With many people predicting a June 2022 demise of a woman’s right to choose, producing a play in March 2022 about the history of that 1972 decision and the subsequent events, arguments, and claims/counterclaims over the next decades is both timely and unsettling.  Any discussion of Roe v. Wade is a Pandora’s Box potentially ready to explode, even in an über-liberal community like Los Altos, where arriving audience members on a Sunday afternoon were greeted by pro-life protesters in the parking lot.

Los Altos Stage Company presents Lisa Loomer’s 2016 Roe – a play that is sweeping in time and scope.  Often feeling like a documentary film telling long-ago history, Roe also has the immediacy of real-time interaction with us as audience as full participants.  Characters speak to us directly; and we even become part of an explosive, town-hall meeting where the two, polarized sides collide with shouted, passionate arguments.  Lisa Loomer does not sway her play to either side of this highly divisive issue, presenting both sides of the issue with divergent voices that are surprisingly and equally human, credible, and even likeable.

Please continue to Talkin’ Broadway to read the entire review.

Rating: 4.5 E

Roe continues in production through March 13, 2022 by Los Altos Stage Company, 97 Hillview Avenue, Los Altos, CA.  Along with onsite, live performances, streaming of the March 11, 12, and 13 performances will be available via the Broadway on Demand platform.  Tickets for live performances are available at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/losaltosstage/739/ and for streamed performances at https://www.broadwayondemand.com/channels/details/roe–los-altos-stage-company .

Photo Credit: Richard Mayer

Rating: 4.5 E, Best Bet Tags: Los Altos Stage Company, 4 E

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Eddie is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle.

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