Swimming in High School, Drowning in Life ‘Dry Land,’ a Drama on Abortion by Ruby Rae Spiegel
Ben BrantleySeptember 13, 2014: The two girls don’t know the protocol for sitting on someone’s stomach for medical reasons. So they improvise, awkwardly and goofily, with one planting her rump on the midsection of the other, which leads to both of them convulsing into giggles. The girl being sat upon laughs so hard that she wets herself. They’re having a good if uncomfortable time. Most likely, so are you. Until the girls remember that what they’re trying to achieve is a do-it-yourself abortion. Even then, the giggles linger, though with a clammy, premonitory chill. Feelings seldom come singly in Dry Land, the remarkable new play by Ruby Rae Spiegel at Here in Greenwich Village. Set largely in the girls’ locker room of a Florida high school, this portrait of an unlikely friendship under uncommon pressure is tender, caustic, funny and harrowing, often all at the same time. Such emotional multivalence is common among teenagers in hormonal flux. But it’s rare that this muddled state is rendered with the nonjudgmental clarity brought to it by Ms. Spiegel, an undergraduate at Yale who just turned 21.
READ THE REVIEW