‘Pre-Existing Condition’ May Have Worked Best If the Playwright, Marin Ireland, Had Taken a Turn as the Protagonist

While Ireland has proven herself capable of great nuance as an actress, her writing here can seem ham-fisted, or too neatly tailored to confront stereotypes or stoke outrage.

Emilio Madrid
Greg Keller and Julia Chan in 'Pre-Existing Condition.' Emilio Madrid

Watching Marin Ireland’s new play, “Pre-Existing Condition,” I couldn’t help but think of those Feeding America ads that have popped up everywhere in recent years, flashing AI-generated faces representing everyday folks to remind us that, according to its statistics, one in eight people suffer from hunger. The protagonist of “Condition,” referred to simply as A, is not starving, at least not for food, but she’s having trouble finding empathy and support in the aftermath of a different ordeal.

“I guess I’m realizing something kind of horrible about myself,” A tells a friend early in the one-act play, “which is that I always thought that like women who got hit by their boyfriends were like … they were like trash. … And there are days when I feel like maybe I always was trash and this experience just made me see that finally.”

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