Steadstyle Chicago
	February 2010 Theatre Review by Joe Stead
	Here Where it's Safe As Americans we often take our freedom of choice for granted.  What do we do if those choices are taken away from us?  Stage Left Theatre's World Premiere of "Here Where it's Safe" shows two women, both in desperate circumstances, from different cultures and faiths who live on opposite sides of the world, who become mutually dependent on one another.  The play examines issues of reproductive rights against clashing cultures, although we're reminded that this is not about science but rather emotions.  There have been many theatrical works that have taken on the culture clash between our "enlightened" western society and the more ambiguous and exotic Middle Eastern countries, and some of the themes here feel quite familiar.  It's still a pretty provocative subject, though, which playwright M.E.H. Lewis treats with intelligence and honesty. American Abigail Jones and her husband Zachary are desperate to have a child.  After the latest heartbreaking miscarriage, they discuss the options of adoption and surrogate parenting.  Zach argues "It will still be ours even if it doesn't have our DNA," while Abby is adamant about having her own baby to continue the family blood line.  A 19-year-old Indian woman named Beena is chosen to be the surrogate mother and Abby and Zach travel to India to meet her and make the necessary arrangements.  Their hope is to help a person in need and to help themselves in the process.  Indian law gives women very few legal rights, which the couple hopes to be in their own best interests.  But what of the human being who is allowing herself to be their "Baby Oven"?  "We're both of us desperation," Beena agrees. The play explores some weighty issues.  Abby's overwhelming need to have a baby is directly tied to the death of her mother and the very conflicted and unresolved relationship they had as a mother and child.  Will she be able to do better for her own child than her mother did for her?  Beena too dreams of coming to America, the land of opportunity, where her own child can have a life of potential she could never have for herself.  The Indian fertility doctor Uma cautions Abby from setting up false promises for Beena she is unable to fulfill.  "Beena knows her place and when you're gone it's best she remembers where it is," Uma sternly advises.  We see a bond form between the two women, with the middle-class American desiring to help her impoverished maternal incubator.  She can sign Beena as the legal birth mother, which would give her Amnesty to come to the States, but in doing so jeopardizes the very prize she wants for herself.      Religious differences are also touched on here, with Abby the "recovering Catholic" praying to her late mother's statue of the Virgin Mary while Beena kneels and chants to her shrine of Buddah.  Reproductive issues have always been hot button topics in Catholicism, and when Doctor Uma offers a forensic explanation of what will happen with the discarded embryos during the impregnation process, Abby's religious sensibilities are alarmed.  The doctor assures Abby that stem cells fertilized and later destroyed are only "potential human lives" and not babies.  After hearing the baby's heartbeat over a phone call some 8,000 miles away, Abby feels the urgent need to protect her unborn child, and the woman who is carrying it as well. This is potentially powerful material that will no doubt strike a chord with many who see it.  It's definitely a woman's play, although it has been lovingly and sensitively cared for by Director Scott Bishop.  Scenic Designer William Anderson has created an entrancing space that feels like a tiny Indian temple.  The colors, textures and attention to detail are really mesmerizing without taking any focus away from the actors, who are all close enough to touch in Stage Left's current in-the-round configuration.  As an ensemble, Cat Dean, Cory Krebsbach, Kate Black, Anita Chandwaney and Mouzam Makkar are superb.  Even as the debate over a woman's right to choose continues to be waged, those choices are not always clear and never simple.  They do make for some powerful moments in the theatre.    "Here Where it's Safe" plays through April 3, 2010 at Stage Left Theatre, located at 3408 North Sheffield in Chicago.  The play runs 2 hours 15 minutes with intermission.  Performances are Thursdays through Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., Sundays at 3:00 p.m.  Tickets are $22 on Fridays and Sundays, $25 on Saturdays, and Pay What You Can (with a suggested amount of $20) on Thursdays.  Student Rush tickets are 50% off any remaining tickets ten minutes before the show (if available), and senior and group discounts are also available.  Call 773-883-8830 or visit www.stagelefttheatre.com.   About Joe Stead Joe Stead has enjoyed a lifelong passion for the theatre, which has involved acting, directing, producing, designing and reviewing for the past twenty-five years.  He served as founder, producer and Artistic Director of Curtain Up Productions in Baltimore, Maryland and Four Star Players in Tampa, Florida.  Favorite productions have included "Life With Father," "Deathtrap," "The Odd Couple," "The Miracle Worker," "Brighton Beach Memoirs," "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" and "Godspell".  He has also performed leading roles in "Fiddler on the Roof," "Pippin," "The Phantom of the Opera," "The Front Page," and most recently as Hucklebee in "The Fantasticks" for Waukegan Community Players.  Joe holds a degree in Commercial Art from Tampa Technical Institute.  As a critic, he has reviewed everything from Broadway to community theatre and major regional theatres throughout the United States including the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, and the Asolo Theatre in Sarasota, Florida.  Since 1998, he has been a proud resident of Chicago, the greatest theatre city in America.  He served for two years as Theatre Editor for College News and Central Newspapers.  He created the website Steadstyle Chicago in 2000 to showcase the city's outstanding and diverse theatre scene.  Joe was proud to serve alongside a distinguished panel of theatre professionals as a judge for two seasons of Speaking Ring Theatre's "Vitality" Festival of original short plays.  His most fulfilling role, in addition to reviewer and all-around theatre fanatic, was as director of the 2007 production of Peter Shaffer's "Equus" at Actors Workshop (now Redtwist) Theatre, which was nominated for five Joseph Jefferson Award Citations and won for Best Actor (Peter Oyloe).