People’s Light presents Suli Holum’s The Woman Question

Holum’s collage of scenes in two acts takes the audience through medical school, from orientation through graduation. Directed by Melissa Crespo, the mood is vaudevillian, with monologues, dialogues, Magic Lantern-like visuals, gymnastics, sleights of hand, and singalongs, all taking place on a spare, handsome set designed by Ann Beyersdorfer. Together with Lux Haac’s excellent costumes that support the prestidigitation bits, the disparate elements—with a few exceptions—usher us into the first women’s medical college. The recorded message about silencing cell phones addresses the audience as students, and for a moment we’re transported to a medical theater in 1890s Philadelphia.

An unfinished feeling

Is it a play? Not yet. It’s difficult to pinpoint what Holum is trying to achieve with this work. In the playbill, much space is given to Holum’s research and collaborating on the creative elements. However, the play itself doesn’t feel finished; many of the characters seem to be placeholders. During a performance lasting more than two hours, we need people to care about. That said, Holum is a beloved and innovative theater-maker, and the audience on opening night adored the show.

The first act moves along fairly briskly, and there are bright moments, such as when the two teachers reminisce about the joys of med school (“First cadaver!”), and a clever reenactment of a dissection that avoids being gross. On the other hand, there are scenes that feel out of place. The pacing is jerky at times, and the volume is uneven: the actors either shout or mumble; and there’s a gymnasium scene with painful whistle blasts. The second act tends to drag, and includes an awkward charades-like game and a confusing scene when Holum and Finister break the fourth wall, and each delivers a monologue about the experience of childbirth. If it was added to show the relevance of history, that not much has changed in 150 years, the point is already made.

The ensemble cast of nine, led by the playwright as Anna and Melanye Finister as Rebecca, play roles listed only by first names. Six of the seven student characters are based on real people, who are identified in a lobby display. Their diversity reflects the fact that women came from all over the world to study medicine at the Philadelphia college, but in reality they weren’t all in the same graduating class. Creating every character in the imaginary “class of 1894” as a trailblazing minority is celebratory, but it also feels forced because the writing still needs work. A number of the roles are relegated to a couple of lines, to the point where they feel like extras.

Characters who deserve more

There is potential, however, to make the women real, imagine their lives as medical students, and slow down. We get a glimpse of these possibilities when Avanthika Srinivasan, as the lonely Anandibai from Poona, Bombay, has a poignantly funny monologue with her only first-semester friend, the class skeleton. This moment is a quiet delight, and by deleting a few segments that don’t move the play along, there is ample room to let the audience get to know the other characters, as well.

Eliza, played by the charismatic Noelle Diane Johnson, was born enslaved and graduated from Woman’s Medical College in 1897; her character is somewhat nuanced. The others don’t feel developed: Susan, the first Native American to earn a medical degree (in 1889), is obsessive about her work schedule. It’s boring as written, and the rest of the characters are equally one-dimensional: a fictional Pennsylvanian (Nat) is often late; another likes mangoes, and so on. They’re based on actual graduates from Japan (Kei), Syria (Tabat), and Russia (Sasha), and the roles deserve to be bigger.

Supporting women today

A display in the second-floor lobby gives information about the students, along with reproduced photos from the archives. On the first floor, audience members can add their written comments to a display entitled “How is History Vibrating for You?”

Among special events complementing The Woman Question is a free coalition-building event at People’s Light on Sunday, May 17, at 11:30am. “Toolkit for Resistance: Strategies for Supporting All Women” unites community leaders, advocates, and artists, in partnership with Red, Wine, and Blue, The Fund for Women and Girls, and the Chester County Women’s Commission. RSVP here for the networking reception followed by a panel discussion focused on advancing equity and expanding opportunities for women today.

Thanks for reading BSR! If you enjoyed this review, be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter and don’t miss the next one. There’s never a paywall at BSR, and you can join the donors who keep our journalism accessible.