The Waiting Room, by Lisa Loomer

The Waiting Room

Publisher: Dramatists Play Service
Page Count: 79
Fiction Genre: Plays, Drama, Gender, Feminism
Dates Read: December 24-25, 2015

Reading Challenge: Mega Challenge
Topic: A play
Series: N/A

Good Reads Summary
A dark comedy about the timeless quest for beauty-and its cost. Three women from different centuries meet in a modern doctor's waiting room. Forgiveness From Heaven is an eighteenth-century Chinese woman whose bound feet are causing her to lose her toes. Victoria is a nineteenth-century tightly corsetted English woman suffering from what is commonly known as "hysteria." Then there is Wanda, a modern gal from New Jersey who is having problems with her silicone breasts. Husbands, doctors, Freud, the drug industry and the FDA all come under examination. The play is a wild ride through medical and sexual politics, including the politics of the ever-present battle with breast cancer.

Review
Wow!  Thinking back to this play still gives me chills.  I wish I could find someplace near me that was putting this on.  This play is powerful!  It's amazing the things we as women will do to make ourselves feel beautiful and to try to attract the attention or to appease our mate.  And, let's be honest, the mate we're talking about here is more often than not, male.  In the year 2016 there are very few taboo subjects in America.  there are few subjects we will not talk about with our girlfriends or in public, but rewind to 100, 200, or even 300 years ago, and everything was private.  You barely talked to your doctor about private things, let alone your partner, and definitely your not your girlfriends.  These were the days where the majority of our "lady issues" could be solved by "filling our uterus" (having a baby).  This play is messed up.  It's messed up because the history of women is messed up.  Read this!  Plays can be a bit difficult to read, but this one is well worth it, even if you're not used to reading plays.  If you have the chance, go and see the play.  There are a few good ones on YouTube, but I have a feeling it's better live.  

Ratings (based on a 10 point scale)
Quality of Writing - 9
Pace - 6
Plot Development - 7
Characters - 7
Enjoyability - 8
Insightfulness - 7
Ease of Reading - 6
Photos/Illustrations - N/A
Overall Rating - 3 out of 5 stars

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