About the Play
REvamping REstell
A theatrical kaleidoscope of Madame Restell (famed midwife and notorious abortionist of the 19th century) providing reproductive healthcare to women on a sliding scale. Certainly, she must be destroyed. Oh, how the times haven't changed.
The play opens in post-Civil War New York City, circa 1868. "Free Thinkers" fill lecture halls. Spiritualists commune with the many dead. Women demand their own freedom. Welcome to the swirling world of REvamping REstell.
At the center is Madame Restell, so notorious in her day that Restellism was a term synonymous with abortion. Intent on destroying her, the historical figures of Anthony Comstock, secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, and Dr. Horatio Storer, "founder" of the new medical field of obstetrics and gynecology and leader of the Physician's Crusade Against Abortion, wage a new war with women firmly in their crosshairs. The play explores the narrowing of options for women through a moment in history peopled by men eerily like our own in 2026.
The play's themes revolve around women's struggle to live self-determined lives, the stranglehold of the patriarchy and Christianity on America, and our country's seemingly stubborn resistance to progress. Its style is genre-fluid (comedy, tragedy, melodrama, medical exams, music, and the channeling of Abraham Lincoln), using authentic period language with a fluid approach to time and space. The play's form invites the audience to piece together the broader context from multiple scenes and monologues.
The Characters
Madame Restell
Anthony Comstock
Dr. Horatio Storer
The Wayward Sisters
Charles Lohman
