Arts & Leisure

New play tells the story of a reproductive rights pioneer

IN THE NEW play “Griswold,” veteran actor Margo Whitcomb plays a Planned Parenthood clinic head who fights a Connecticut law banning birth control all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Her case in the 1960s paved the way for the Roe v. Wade decision, but Griswold herself is not well known. INDEPENDENT PHOTO/JOHN S. McCRIGHT

A few hours at the theater can help us escape momentarily from the wrenching problems of the real world. But sometimes a play does an even more important job by revealing and dramatizing the kind of person who might help bring us back from the brink, and how it might be done.