By Taryn Venner Ashe
originally published: 01/29/2020
(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- Midwives by Chris Bohjalian is on stage at George Street Playhouse at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center in New Brunswick, NJ until February 16, 2020. The production is directed by David Saint.
Readers may remember Midwives as a NY Times Bestseller and Oprah Book Club selection by author/playwright Chris Bohjalian. His new stage adaptation, which celebrated its world premiere with George Street Playhouse on Friday, is a riveting fresh story for contemporary audiences. This suspenseful drama is the result of a collaborative endeavor between Bohjalian and Artistic Director David Saint and features a stellar cast.
Upon entering the brand new theater, named for playwright Arthur Laurents, we are immediately drawn to the intimate setting created by Shoko Kambara (set design), David Lander (lighting design), and Scott Killian (music and sound design). There is a quiet simplicity to the set: the bedroom of a Vermont farmhouse flanked by birch trees in the moonlight. Soft music sets the mood as the play opens, evoking the calm before the storm.
Midwives is about a routine home birth that turns terribly wrong and the court case that follows. Act I opens with Connie Danforth, played by Molly Carden, narrating the events leading up to and including the fateful night in 1985. Even though she was not in the room at the time of the tragedy, Connie has her mother’s journals to piece together the story for us. Carden is an animated and bold Connie. She brings us back to the past and humanizes the characters involved, particularly her mother who is the accused midwife Sibyl Danforth, played by Ellen McLaughlin. This is not a tragedy we gawk at from afar; with Connie’s narration, Bohjalian and Saint invite us into the narrative for each moment that transpires. We learn this is the second home birth for Charlotte Fugett Bedford, played beautifully by Monique Robinson. The audience marvels at Robinson’s performance as a woman in labor who fully trusts her midwife. The physicality of her role is demanding and she presents it with truth and grace.
The gravitas of Ellen McLaughlin’s performance is the highlight of Act I. She embodies the calm persona and confidence of the midwife. Charlotte’s husband Asa Bedford, played by Ryan George, and Sibyl’s assistant in training Anne Austin, played by Grace Experience, are also present in the room. Both George and Experience are gripping in their roles and the audience connects to their characters as we attempt to engage in what is happening before us. George’s pathos as a husband, father, and preacher is tangible. And Experience artfully shows us an honest portrayal of someone who desperately wants to control a challenging situation. The relationships that develop among these four characters are compelling to watch. Act I moves with a pace that is slow at first and then crescendos to an ultimate choice. It is so riveting we cannot believe how intense the room is at times.
Connie continues the narration in Act II but she also steps into flashbacks and scenes of the court room. We get to know Connie’s father, played by John Bolger. And as the tone of this act transforms to a condemnation of Sibyl, he emerges an honorable ally. Her lawyer Stephen Hastings, played by Lee Sellars, takes turns with prosecutor Bill Tanner, played by Armand Schultz, addressing the court. The two men keep an excellent pace so that the second act is a swift moving drama. Questions emerge and characters surprise us by following unpredictable trajectories.
The court room drama leaves us asking, who do we blame for the tragedy that transpires? Ultimately, this is not the question that matters. Bohjalain asks of us something deeper -- to consider memory. What role does it play in our actions in the present? What vision does it give us for the future? At the core of Midwives is a deep and loving mother-daughter relationship. Bohjalian endears himself to women, who may or may not have experienced birth and motherhood, with the sheer respect he evokes in his writing.
"Midwives" is presented by George Street Playhouse in The Arthur Laurents Theater at The New Brunswick Performing Arts Center. Performances run through February 16, 2020.
Photos by T. Charles Erickson
About the author:
Taryn teaches World Literature and Creative Writing at County Prep High School, Hudson County Schools of Technology in Jersey City, NJ. She has an M.A. in Literature and Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She has been published in School Library Journal in
School Library Journal. She can be contacted at
[email protected].
You can have your events appear here,
whenever someone reads an article about
NEW BRUNSWICK
click here for more information
Fellowship For Performing Arts Presents C.s. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
Saturday, November 07, 2026 @ 4:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
Fellowship For Performing Arts Presents C.s. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters
Saturday, November 07, 2026 @ 7:30pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
New Jersey Symphony Presents Rick Steves’ Europe: A Symphonic Journey
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
New Jersey Symphony Presents Rick Steves' Europe: A Symphonic Journey
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 2:00pm
State Theatre New Jersey
15 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
Dme Presents Mandar Bhide - Ale Pak
Sunday, November 08, 2026 @ 4:00pm
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC)
11 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ
EVENT PREVIEWS
Dunbar Repertory Company presents "FOR COLORED GIRLS Who have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf"
(MIDDLETOWN, NJ) -- Dunbar Repertory Company presents Ntozake Shange's FOR COLORED GIRLS Who have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow is Enuf at the Middletown Arts Center across two weekends from November 7-15, 2026. This is the groundbreaking "choreopoem" – a spellbinding collection of vivid prose and free verse narratives about and performed by Black women. The production is directed by Darrell Lawrence Willis, SR.
It's a Family Affair: A Hilarious Dark Comedy Premieres at Avenel Performing Arts Center Before Heading Off-Off-Broadway
(AVENEL, NJ) -- Retirement was supposed to bring JT Tyler some peace. Instead, the retired fire captain discovers that after 40 years of putting out fires for everyone else, the biggest fire he may ever face is burning right inside his own home.
Trilogy Repertory presents "Clue"
(BASKING RIDGE, NJ) -- Trilogy Repertory presents Clue across two weekends from November 7-15, 2026 at The Sieminski Theater. It's a dark and stormy night. Whodunit? And how? The answer(s) may surprise you.
Bergen County Players presents "The Guys" this weekend
(ORADELL, NJ) -- As September 11 rapidly passes from living memory into recorded history—with well over a third of Americans today knowing that tragic day only through history books—Bergen County Players (BCP) invites the community to meaningfully "never forget" with a special, limited-run Second Stage presentation of Anne Nelson's The Guys.
Center Players presents "It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play"
(FREEHOLD, NJ) -- Center Players presents It's A Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play with four performances across two Sundays (November 8 and November 15, 2026). Performances are split between the American Hotel and Mattison Crossing.
Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026
(HAMPTON, NJ) -- Hunterdon Hills Playhouse presents Christmas at the Playhouse 2026 from November 10 to December 20, 2026. Celebrate the season with this spectacular holiday production filled with the music, memories, and traditions audiences have cherished through the years.
Ferrell Studios presents "Carrie, the Musical"
(PLAINFIELD, NJ) -- Ferrell Studios presents Carrie, the Musical at the Plainfield Performing Arts Center from November 12-15, 2026. Based on the classic novel by Stephen King, the musical poses the question: What happens when someone is pushed too far?
Centenary Stage Company's Fringe Festival presents "Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman"
(HACKETTSTOWN, NJ) -- Centenary Stage Company's Fringe Festival continues with Ghost Dance: Picture of a Madman, a captivating one-woman play written and performed by Erica Knight. Running November 12–15, 2026, in the Kutz Theatre at the Lackland Performing Arts Center on the campus of Centenary University. The production explores the turbulent life and legacy of Ralph Albert Blakelock, one of America's most celebrated yet tragically overlooked nineteenth-century painters.
Fool Moon Theatre Company presents "Love, Loss, And What I Wore" at The Eagle Theatre on November 12th
(HAMMONTON, NJ) -- Fool Moon Theatre Company presents a special, one-night-only presentation of the hit play Love, Loss and What I Wore on Thursday, November 12 2026 at Eagle Theatre. This exclusive event is a benefit for the Funny Farm Rescue & Sanctuary in Mays Landing. Showtime is 7:30pm.
Middlesex College presents "She Kills Monsters"
(EDISON, NJ) -- Middlesex College Visual, Performing and Media Arts presents She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen from November 12-18, 2026 at the Performing Arts Center - Studio Theater in Edison. She Kills Monsters tells the story of Agnes Evans as she leaves her childhood home in Ohio following the death of her teenage sister, Tilly.
