←Recommendations of QUICK

A moving three-hander about a future that feels very close to being a reality. Can't believe this was written 2 years before Roe was overturned. Stout is a visionary storyteller.

Read in book club! Here's what we discussed:
A beautiful and excellent concept, peeking into a dystopian future not too far from our own dystopia, but the play itself reads with the same White Feminism that Hand Maiden's Tale.
Though the author leaves a note requesting diversity, all 3 characters are written with the voice of white women.
Who is this play for? The spoon-feeding feels like it's for someone's bigoted uncle, but the play itself draws womanist and activist, but there is nothing being said. No nuance. Plot is mostly implied :( I wish the show well though

QUICK a dystopian drama that minces no words or gestures towards the perils women face -- both today and possibly in the next few years -- when it comes to the right to govern their own bodies. The three characters find themselves faced with extraordinary circumstances to obtain access to their reproductive-yet-now-highly-illegal-rights in a dark future that echoes moments of the present. Even while threats of violence and criminalization hanging over them, the play's heart and soul is the trust and care women place in each other through the best and worst of circumstances. A beautiful, timely call to action.

The setting note at the opening of QUICK is "This play is set in an I-hope-not future." which is a beautiful encapsulation of the arc of the play to come. The conversations between the characters are simple and truthful. It's quietly suspenseful and the situation for each character in light our current political climate is confronting. The reality of this sort of future catches the breath; Stout does a beautiful job of exploring what female body autonomy means in an increasingly hostile world.

With matter of fact, alarming precision, Quick unfolds an all too believable dystopian future for American women. Following three women who are headed to Canada to access abortion, the play details how our current path as a country could lead to the suffering and terror of many women. As they struggle with their inability to control their own bodies, these character somehow find a way to reclaim their dignity and autonomy over their lives with the help of their travel companions and by reflecting on where it all went wrong. A timely play and important story.

QUICK explores the beautiful camaraderie of women overcoming huge odds set against their very womanhood. You can feel how well researched the play is, which fosters its stark warning about a future that can (terrifyingly so) happen very soon if we don't fight back fast enough. What truly hit me was the way Ali, Liz, and Cait question the artificiality of borders and the laws that come with borders, ideologies, and control, and the doubts that come with all those things.

Part of the effectiveness of Stout's QUICK is its "in the future but right around the corner feel." It was absolutely engrossing and startling to read this imagined future that feels all too terrifyingly close to our current socio political reality. Stout takes care not to simply make an "issue" play--she crafts nuanced and engaging characters who speak with distinct and defined voices and have urgent goals. The handful of potently written scenes depict excellently chosen moments in these characters' journey north. I hope this play has a long life starting now--it is definitely required viewing for the present.

QUICK is an engrossing meditation and exploration of a topical issue, illuminated by three complex and dynamic characters. I had so many feelings reading this powerful play but continually fluctuated between concern and fear. I found myself responding to the character's questions and statements as I grew progressively more introspective about where we are, in 2020, and where we could be headed. Stout attempts something tremendous and succeeds.

I love this play and I'm so happy it's available on NPX now. Human, suspenseful, relevant, absolutely essential.

It's the relative quiet that makes this play so arresting. The simplicity. Stout takes a (for the moment) speculative premise and grounds it so assuredly in the voices and lives of three women that the play feels like testimony from the near future. I've thought about this play often since I first heard it read, and it leaps to my mind with each news alert that the world it depicts is merging with our own.