Bridge Street Theatre

August 8 – August 18, 2024
Times Vary

44 W Bridge St,
Catskill, NY 12414

GRISWOLD

by Angela J. Davis

It’s 1960. America is on the eve of a sexual revolution, and an improbable but unstoppable 60-year-old woman, Estelle Griswold, decides to challenge the late 19th century Connecticut law that criminalized contraception. Angela J. Davis’ timely new play, GRISWOLD, is a moving, humorous, and thrillingly theatrical look at Estelle Griswold’s initially frustrated but ultimately successful legal challenge that did nothing less than change the course of modern American history.

As the Executive Director of Planned Parenthood New Haven, Estelle Griswold had to contend with an antiquated law, an unmovable state legislature, and a board of directors afraid to rock the boat, all while dealing with her husband’s deteriorating health. Her first two legal challenges met with failure. She got back up every time. The third challenge (following her own arrest!) hangs in the balance as ghosts from the past fight it out over legal principles and popular superstition. The Supreme Court’s decision, establishing a right of privacy in intimate, personal relationships, became foundational in many subsequent decisions, up to and including the decision legalizing same-sex marriage.

Estelle is a self-taught, forward-thinking woman starting a new job at the age of 60. She makes a mean martini and is unafraid of ruffling feathers. Margo Whitcomb plays her with compassion and a wicked sense of irony, while Leyla Modirzadeh and Andre G. Brown take on the 20-plus characters that Estelle contends with (and is inspired by) along the way. These include P. T. Barnum, birth control pioneers Katharine McCormick and Dr. Hilda Standish, Planned Parenthood staffers and Board members, lawyers, judges, protestors, police officers, as well as two contemporaries who together embody the extraordinary reach of Estelle’s legacy. The play personalizes and dissects a debate of great historical (and present-day) consequence with humor and humanity, transforming Estelle’s personal and legal battle into a provocative, highly theatrical, time-traveling saga for three accomplished actors.

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