I first heard of Dry Land last year when my friend Kaylee researched the play for our Script Analysis final. Kaylee’s a person I find incredibly smart and driven, so I trusted her judgment, though I assumed the show probably fell a little short of her excited sales pitch. I couldn’t have been more wrong. With this play, Ruby Rae Spiegel presents a masterclass in theater designed to make people uncomfortable. Dry Land forces its audience to come to terms with their relationship with bodies in a shared space. It’s unflinching, grounded, and honest in ways I haven’t seen from any play since.
The story follows the burgeoning friendship of Amy and Ester as the two try to deal with Amy’s unexpected and unwanted teen pregnancy, almost every scene taking place in the locker room of the pair’s swim team. While there are a handful of accessory characters, the central relationship between the two girls gets the vast majority of focus. They’re complex. Amy and Ester like each other, and sometimes love each other, and sometimes hate each other, but always need each other. Or rather, Amy needs Ester, and Ester needs Amy to need her. That’s only one read, which should speak for how nuanced this play is. Buried under the incredibly grounded way these teenagers speak are two girls who are afraid of saying what they really mean, which the audience notices as soon as they hear each joke or deflection.
The biggest flaw with Dry Land, and why we don’t see it more often, is the technical demand. Spiegel was intentional about directly and viscerally showing the entire course of Amy abortion at the climax of the play. That’s an incredible task to give to a creative team. Yes, delicate direction and actors on the same page can get around this load, but creating a narrative climax that’s too concealed in a play that thrives on being exposed risks undermining what drives the thematic engine of Dry Land. I haven’t seen it done, but I know it can be.
Dry Land is a play about a lot of things. It’s a play about an abortion. It’s a play about vulnerability, the pressures we put on kids, and what we owe to each other. Most importantly, though, Dry Land is a play that deserves a read. If you find a copy, or even better hear of a production near you, sit through the show. Amy and Ester deserve it.