Performer-writer shares her abortion experience
By: Andrea Perez
March 6, 2025
DO YOU HAVE a uterus? What kind of birth control do you use? Have you ever had an abortion? And … did these questions make you uncomfortable? Performer and writer Rachel Cairns has decided to answer these publicly for her audiences and turn her abortion, a typically intensely private affair, into art.
Hypothetical Baby, a Nightwood Theatre production in association with The Howland Company, cracks open a world of socio-economic, personal and grander political questions about abortion in Canada and beyond. After its successful indie run in 2023, in this tight 90-minute show, Cairns tells the real-life story of her own unexpected IUD pregnancy in 2019 while working as an artist (and shoe shiner) in Downtown Toronto. This solo show is charming, honest and nimbly high-energy.
Continued: https://nextmag.ca/review-personal-and-political-collide-in-hypothetical-baby-at-factory-theatre/