Walter and Du are members of Operation Retrieval, a group of "like-minded Christians motivated by a belief in the sanctity of life and the rights of unborn children." Keely is one of four women across the country, all pregnant, all seeking abortion, who have been "taken into protective custody." These women will be held until the seventh month of their pregnancy. Adoptive parents are ready to raise these children if the women cannot be convinced to take on this responsibility themselves. In either case, these chil- dren are to be walking, talking, living, breathing testaments to the right to life.

In 18 short scenes, Martin crafts the evolution of the relationship between Keely and Du. How far is too far when it comes to standing up for what you believe in? What are the rape victim's rights? The play poses both questions to both the right-to-life and freedom-of-choice camps.

Directed by David Kelso and produced by Kathy McCafferty and Theresa McCullock, the cast includes Christine Bain, Sherrie Lessard, Michael Scahill, Ilolly Pollack and Billy Stevens. Perfonnances are at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $12 general, $10 seniors and students. Reservations are highly recom- mended; call (858) 679-8085.

POwPAC is at 13250 Poway Road, upstairs in the Lively Center. There is handicapped parking and an elevator behind the shopping center.

By Rina Szwarc

"Keely & Du," a production of the Poway Performing Arts Company, works to keep a viewer at the edge of the seat on the level of simple suspense and psychological tension surrounding a controversial issue.

TheaterReview

The production, whose run ends on Sunday, is well worth seeing in terms of acting and production at the playhouse, located at 13250 Poway Road, upstairs at the Lively Center. The price works as well. Tickets cost $12 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students. Showtimes are 8 p.m., Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Reservations can be made by calling (858) 679-8085-. Note: This play contains adult language and deals with mature subject matter in a frank and explicit manner. The issue central to the play is choice, although what that means transcends the simplistic arguments surrounding that highly charged word when connected to women and reproduction.

But don't come expecting a simple piece of agit-prop, highlighting one side or the other in the abortion debate. Thanks to David Kelso's even-handed direction of Susan Martin's play, the performance gives us a slice of unsettling reality.

The play centers around Kee1y. She is a woman in her third month of pregnancy. who wakes up to find herself handcuffed to a bed, located in the basement of a working-class home. A group of Christians has decided to keep her there until her seventh month, which is past the legal limit for abortions.

What saves the play from being an ideological shouting match is fine acting.

Take Du, Keely's nurse and jailor, as played by Sherrie Lessard.

Her character starts out by giving Keely doses of acerbic lectures combined with sticky sweet advice.

But as the play progresses, she lets her guard down to talk about her hard life, with a mother dead at an early age, a father who "died hard" from throat cancer and a husband she did not come to love until after her three children were grown.

"We found God late in life," she tells Keely. "And God turned him into a firebrand... He still looks terrible with his clothes off, but I just close my eyes."

Keely responds with her story about what happened with her marriage to Cole, whom she divorced after he became an alcoholic.

"He got me on the floor and raped me," she says. "That's how he caught up with my marriage."

The word central to Keely's life is freedom.

She repeatedly begs Du to let her go because she fears she would abuse the child if it is born and because she longs for her own life free of other people's demands.

"I don't want to be in another box," she says to Du, "where something is more important than I am."

But the two women achieve a friendship of sorts, and the combination makes for some fantastic humor.

"You actually think you are my best friend," says Keely to Du as she brushes her hair. "Is this how you treat all your friends, chain them to the bed?."

The other members of the five-person cast also put in good performances, with special mention going to Walter, as played by Michael Scahill.

And the psychological tension remains long after the plot's been resolved.