‘Keely and Du’ takes on Christian nationalism, reproductive rights and kidnapping

From left, Nike Doukas and Sara Eklund / JoeySnap

LOS ANGELES — Jane Martin’s 1993 play Keely and Du was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize, and years later, in 2018, was turned into a feature film. The play has gone on to a respectable regional and university theater career and still attracts audiences. For what it’s worth, I’d never encountered it before, but the topic sounded intriguing and not at all dated.

On July 31, The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater Company opened its 30th anniversary production of Keely and Du, directed by HCLAB associate artistic director Bryan Keith, at the Art of Acting Studio in Hollywood. I’m very glad I went. It’s terrifying, powerful, wonderfully acted, and especially as we hear more and more from the schemers of Project 2025 and from the mouths of leading MAGAts Donald J. Trump and J.D. Vance, we grasp it as a not-so-far-fetched dystopian vision of what likely exists already to a degree and what is surely on the agenda should those forces rise to power this November or anytime in the future.

The program states the time is the “present,” and the place “Providence, R.I., A Working-Class Neighborhood.” The “present” requires no further explanation, but I wonder how useful the place is. The setting is the sound-proofed, locked, retrofitted basement of probably a former factory or office building, which I suppose would be situated in a working-class part of town, but the working class has nothing to do with the atrocities that will ensue in this horrid prison space. As for Providence, perhaps the playwright chose that name because of its religious overtone, but I couldn’t help thinking that Rhode Island, home to Roger Williams, was among the most liberal and free-thinking of the early colonies so far as liberty of religious expression—or none—is concerned. Perhaps Martin intended this irony.

The setup is pretty simple and straightforward. Fanatical right-wing pastor Walter (Sean Spann), 50ish, is an activist with Operation Retrieval, a criminal organization inspired by fundamentalist Christian religious beliefs. Their “operation” is to identify women on their way to abortion centers, kidnap and drug them, and transport them across state lines to secret locales where they will be kept until the child is born. Or, if the expectant mother comes to accept the doctrine of the sacred life of a fetus—more treasured, indeed, than her own!—then she could be released back to the world when it’s already too late for an abortion.

Keely (Sara Eklund) is the victim here. After the prospective mother wakes up in her new digs, handcuffed to her iron bedstead, she will be barraged by constant “pro-life” propaganda against abortion in the hope that she will accept Jesus and willingly reverse course. Walter, a classic cult patriarch, is in charge of her spiritual conversion. He comes and goes frequently to pursue his quest. Presumably, when he is not seen, he is off visiting other candidates for conversion housed in other basements.

Du (Nike Doukas) is the registered nurse, older, I’d say also in her 50s, also an acolyte of Operation Retrieval, assigned as Keely’s constant companion and aide. The play transpires over the course of maybe two months, judging from the visible progress of Keely’s pregnancy, and while Keely is angry and resistant at first, eventually, she and Du begin to get to know one another, listening to stories about their family backgrounds and relationships. In other words, they become human to one another, not simply avatars of larger ideological positions. The audience can begin to understand that each woman has their reasons to feel as they do.

The play is on the highest level about a woman’s reproductive rights, now, since Dobbs, perhaps the single hottest campaign issue of 2024. But as Keely unspools her life (Cincinnati seems to be her home base), it seems she has always been subject to the will and whim of men—her now paralyzed cop father whom she cares for, other family members, schoolmates, abusive romantic partners, including her estranged husband Cole (Niek Versteeg) who came back in humility and then raped her savagely. It’s his baby she’s carrying. In a gloriously written passage, she rhapsodizes about the joy she’s discovered in high, Alpine mountain hikes, preferably with no one else around, just to get away from everyone’s demands on her. So in the end it’s about women’s demand for equality, the freedom to act on their own behalf out from under patriarchal control.

Walter is gone for four days, attending a confab in Baton Rouge, and in his absence, on Keely’s birthday, Du and her charge deepen their connection. That’s all I’ll say about the plot. In one uninterrupted act of under two hours’ length, the attention never sags: The growth of these compelling characters continues to hold our interest and fascination. We witness the profound compassion that forms between these two women who have met under such extraordinary circumstances.

Additional actors in the play include “orderlies” Teodora Avramovic, Grace Olivia Ruble, and Maurizio Russildi.

Set design is by Johnny Patrick Yoder, lighting design is by Ray Jones, costume design is by Aja Morris-Smiley, sound design is by Carter Dean, and properties design is by production manager Fadhia Carmelle Marcelin. The assistant director is Michelle Bonebright-Carter, fight choreographer is Jen Albert. The stage manager is Mary Leveridge.

Before providing the performance deets, I’d like to share this intriguing paragraph from the producers’ press release:

“Jane Martin is the pen name of a playwright who has been active since 1981, whose real identity remains unknown. Martin’s other plays include Anton in Show Business, Back Story, Beauty, Coup/Clucks, Cementville, Criminal Hearts, Flaming Guns of the Purple Sage, Vital Signs, and Talking With…. Keely and Du won the 1994 American Theater Critics Association New Play Award and was a finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize. Martin has been a longtime collaborator of former Actors Theatre of Louisville artistic director Jon Jory, who has directed the premieres of all of Martin’s plays and serves as Martin’s occasional spokesman. For this reason, Martin is often speculated to be Jory himself, or a collaboration between Jory and his wife, playwright Marcia Dixcy. Jory has refused to divulge any information about Martin other than that they are a native of Kentucky and that, ‘whoever writes these plays feels that they would be unable to write them” if their identity were revealed.’”

Keely and Du runs through August 17 for 12 performances only, Weds. through Sat. at 7:30 pm. General admission tickets are $22. VIP tickets, with benefits, are available for $40. Purchase online or by phone at (323) 601-5310. Thirty minutes prior to curtain, the remaining seats are Pay What You Can. The Harold Clurman Laboratory Theater is located at the Art of Acting Studio, 1017 N. Orange Drive in Hollywood 90038.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Eric A. Gordon

Eric A. Gordon, People’s World Cultural Editor, wrote a biography of radical American composer Marc Blitzstein and co-authored composer Earl Robinson’s autobiography. He has received numerous awards for his People's World writing from the International Labor Communications Association. He has translated all nine books of fiction by Manuel Tiago (pseudonym for Álvaro Cunhal) from Portuguese, available from International Publishers NY.