Being a teenager, pregnant and seeking an illegal abortion doesn’t sound like the premise of an upbeat rock opera, but songwriter and musician Chadwick Stokes pulls it off with his mood-lifting “1972,” an American Repertory Theater production premiering at Harvard’s Farkas Hall.
Stokes centers the work on the story of pregnant 19-year-old Hannah, played by the impressive Gracie McGraw. She’s fleeing an abusive relationship and meets three train-hoppers (Stokes as Depot, Will Urmston as Pinto, and Darren Buck as Eddy) swapping stories around a campfire. The men trade tales of the hardships they faced in their own lives in the plaintive “Bird in Hand.”
Pinto became a ward of the state as a child; Depot missed his daughter’s childhood because he was incarcerated. Hannah is in search of a safe abortion, not an easy thing to find in 1972. The men show her how to hop a freight train, a particularly dramatic moment as the foursome leap up to a raised portion of the stage, convincingly portrayed as a train through the driving rhythms of the music, most notably through the violin of Brit King (who later appears in a role; several cast members take on multiple parts). The men are not united in their support for Hannah’s search for an abortion: Eddy urges her to go back to her man, despite the evident bruise on her face.
Stokes as Depot is central to the show, for which he wrote the music and co-wrote the book with Jessie Nelson, book writer for the A.R.T.’s 2015 production of “Waitress,” which went to Broadway. Nelson directs the 80-minute show, which features a cast of eight vocalists, most of whom also play instruments, as well as some backing musicians.
While waiting in a sketchy clinic for an abortion, Hannah meets Louisa, a minister’s daughter who dreams of becoming the first Black female astronaut. When Louisa and Hannah realize the doctor is drunk, they flee together, but it’s too late for Louisa, who had already undergone a botched abortion, and her death is mourned in “Louisa Says Goodbye.”
Thanks to a flyer outside a liquor store spotted by Eddy, Hannah eventually finds the Jane Collective, an organization of Chicago laywomen who perform safe abortions. The upbeat, humorous, fast-rhyming “Chicago” evokes some early Bob Dylan lyrics and conveys the sense of hope and gratitude Hannah feels as these women welcome and protect her.
Members of the collective share the alias “Jane” to preserve their anonymity and evade arrest by moving their activities to different apartments and other locations. By the time of 1973’s Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in the United States, the Janes had performed 10,363 of the operations, for women with varying reasons for terminating a pregnancy, thus protecting the right of those women to make decisions about their own lives.
Stokes, an experienced train-hopper himself, has written a series of accessible yet complex songs. The musical rhythm of a train is a recurring musical motif used to drive the story forward. Excellent drumming and guitar work enhanced by violin, brass and other instruments create infectious music, whether backing the full ensemble, soloists or small groups. The voices are often electrifying, especially that of Khaila Wilcoxon, who plays Harlan, one of the Janes. The rock opera culminates in “Cry Out,” a rousing anthem urging listeners to “Cry out for the country/Cry out for the king/Cry out for the court and the power they bring.”
There are some challenges to the performance. There is no orchestra pit at Farkas Hall, which means the musicians and their instruments take up most of the stage, leaving little room for scene design. Yet the energy and emotional delivery of the two dozen well-written and beautifully performed songs as they flow into one another make the story absorbing and moving.
The work evolved out of activism; Stokes and his wife, Sybil Gallagher, are co-founders of Calling All Crows, a nonprofit devoted to connecting music fans to issues regarding women’s rights. Stokes had long wanted to create a show about train-hopping featuring a woman, and the search for safe reproductive health care before legalized abortion gave him a viable story line, one that became timely following the 2022 overturn of Roe.
The A.R.T. is supporting efforts to protect reproductive rights through facilitated conversations led by former Janes following select performances and a reading of Kate Hamill’s “The Janes,” a new play inspired by the Jane Collective, at Farkas Hall on Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
The production of “1972” is onstage through Dec. 6; many performances are already sold out.
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