TimeLine Theatre launches its 30th Anniversary season this September with a bold world premiere about the controversial creation that reshaped women's lives. The Birth of the Pill, a new play by Jessica Huang based on the book by Pulitzer Prize-winning Chicago author Jonathan Eig, is an eye-opening story about science, power, and the women who paid the price for progress. Directed by Sandra Marquez, the production was commissioned and developed by TimeLine and opens the company's inaugural four-show season at its new home in Chicago's Uptown community.

The story begins in the mid-20th century as a radical dream starts to take shape: a simple pill that would give women full control over their reproductive futures. Championing the groundbreaking idea are feminist activist Margaret Sanger, scientist Gregory Pincus, gynecologist John Rock, and philanthropist Katharine McCormick, visionaries working under intense secrecy amid legal, scientific, and religious roadblocks. Meanwhile, in Puerto Rico, clinical trials place the burden of experimentation on women like Ramona Delgado, whose lives and bodies become entangled in the quest for scientific advancement.

Audiences will be hard-pressed to recall another play that interacts with its source material quite like this one. Huang calls it "a play in conversation with the book by Jonathan Eig," and the piece offers a fresh, critical look at how the book holds up 14 years after publication, after the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and amidst the current cultural and political climate of the United States. The result probes urgent questions about consent, sacrifice, and the complicated cost of social change.

"I'm excited almost beyond words to see The Birth of the Pill on stage," said Eig. "Jessica Huang's play is a whole new thing-not so much an adaptation as a reinvention. I feel like the book had a baby, and the child is more brilliant and beautiful than I ever could have dreamed. I can't wait for everyone to see it."

Published in 2014 by W. W. Norton, Eig's book The Birth of the Pill was hailed as "one giant leap for womenkind" by The Guardian and named a "Best Book of 2014" by the Chicago Tribune. His subsequent biography of Martin Luther King Jr., King: A Life, won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography, and his biography of Muhammad Ali, Ali: A Life, won the PEN/ESPN Award and inspired a documentary by Ken Burns, for which Eig served as consulting producer. His other books include Get Capone, Opening Day, and The Luckiest Man. Eig confirms this is his first involvement in theatre since he played trumpet in the pit orchestra for Brigadoon at Spring Valley High School. He and his wife, Jennifer Tescher, are longtime TimeLine Theatre subscribers.

"Befitting TimeLine's mission, The Birth of the Pill is a story that transcends time-exploring the quest to invent the birth control pill, the struggles, controversies, and harm caused by its creation and clinical trials, and all the history that continues to unfold since. We can't wait to bring this play to Uptown to launch the inaugural season in our new home," said TimeLine Theatre Artistic Director PJ Powers.

"We've been great admirers and friends of Jonathan Eig for many years, and I began talking with him more than a decade ago about adapting one of his many tremendous books into a play," Powers added. "The Birth of the Pill quickly became that passion project for TimeLine, among his lauded body of work, and we were thrilled to commission Jessica Huang, a playwright whose skill, craft, and unique voice had already captured our great interest. The pairing of Jessica and Jon-and the invaluable leadership of director Sandra Marquez-has been one of the most inspiring collaborations I've witnessed in TimeLine's 30 years. Jon has been a generous contributor, sharing his depth of research, while also being an enthusiastic cheerleader for Jessica to create a piece of theatre in her own voice, and for this moment, distinct from when and how the book was first written."

"The play is an adaptation, but also an addition to Jon's book," agreed Huang. "For me, the story of the Puerto Rican women who were coerced to participate in clinical trials is not only a crucial piece of our history, it is actually the center of this story. So while the play is a faithful adaptation, it is also a retelling that challenges his book, adds to his book, and collaborates with it. Sort of like my friendship with Jon, which became a part of the play as well."

Previews of The Birth of the Pill begin September 2, with opening night on Thursday, September 10 at 7:30 p.m. Performances run through October 4 at TimeLine Theatre, 5035 N. Broadway (at Argyle) in Uptown.