Sisters in Law

Reviewed by Nikki Munoz
The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts
Through October 13

“It doesn’t matter that I was the first and you were the second,” the character Sandra Day O’Connor (Stephanie Faracy) says to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (Tovah Feldshuh) in Sisters in Law. “What matters is that we won’t be the last.” It’s an inspiring and memorable line in a play that contains many of them. Sisters in Law, written by Jonathan Shapiro, spotlights the women behind each of the well-known public figures while examining the complex relationship between them.

Directed by Patricia McGregor, the production at The Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts excels in its depiction of the first two women to serve as justices on the Supreme Court. Spanning decades, Sisters in Law references multiple court cases — yet, it is not the cases themselves that are at the center of this narrative, but rather what Ginsburg and O’Connor were like as colleagues.

Historically, Ginsburg has leaned left while O’Connor was a centrist and the swing vote in many cases. Their work ethics and perspectives on social change were — and still are — also drastically different, especially with regard to equality for women. O’Connor believes it is something that has to happen over the course of a slow progression, while Ginsburg believes in aiming radically for fast change.

Playing real public figures is hard to do, yet Feldshuh and Faracy are both stellar in their roles. Their dialogue involves a significant amount of debate; in this, both women are firm and confident in their views, but with an evident mutual respect at the core of their dialogue. Feldshuh and Faracy have radiant chemistry and a shared ability to portray respect and contempt at the same time.

While their stage time is equal, Ginsburg is established as the slightly more prominent lead, mostly by gearing the sympathy of an L.A. audience her way. Perhaps that’s because, from a progressive standpoint, her vision more closely mirrors today’s world and values than O’Connor’s does. Yet, in a lengthy scene in which they discuss how to implement gender equality into the Constitution, their exchange is so smooth and compelling that you almost want both to be right.

Shapiro has excelled in depicting a long and intricate relationship within the confines of a 90-minute play. Many scenes are brief — vignettes that portray the women’s everyday lives — but the pace slows down when it needs to, for the most pivotal moments. Further, the relationship between the women is presented carefully and thoughtfully, resulting in our emotional investment in how their story unfolds.

This investment is what keeps the overly sentimental ending from seeming entirely out of place. The final scene, in which O’Connor admits she was wrong about a couple of the cases that Ginsburg fought her on, is both satisfying and sweet, despite the on-the-nose delivery of the message. It’s here we’re reminded of the next (and thus far only) two women to become justices of the Supreme Court, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan — proving one thing that O’Connor was right about: she and Ginsburg were not the last.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 Santa Monica Blvd., Beverly Hills; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2:30 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 p.m. & 7:30 p.m.; through Oct .13. https://www.thewallis.org/sisters-in-law. Running time: 90 minutes.