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An Immaculate Misconception
Written by	Carl Djerassi
Characters	Melanie Laidlaw Menachem Dvir Felix Frankenthaler Adam
Date premiered	1998
Original language	English
Subject	ICSI, ambition, tribal culture & parenthood
Genre	Drama
Setting	An American location between 1997 and 1998.

An Immaculate Misconception is a play by Carl Djerassi. It is his first theatre play and partly adopted from his novel Menachem’s Seed. It revolves around intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and the ethical consequences of artificial insemination and thus transfers Djerassi’s ideas of science-in-fiction to the stage for the first time. The title is a wordplay on the immaculate conception in Christian mythology.

Plot

Reproductive biologist Melanie Laidlaw is driven by her desire to execute the first successful ICSI-procedure as well as by her wish to become a mother herself. The prospective father is Menachem Dvir, an Israeli nuclear engineer whom she has fallen in love with at a conference. After discovering that Menachem is functionally infertile due to a radiation accident, Melanie secretly obtains a condom containing his sperm. She aims to create the first ICSI-Baby by inseminating four of her own ova with Menachem’s sperm. But during the procedure her colleague Felix Frankenthaler, jealous and enraged by Melanie’s obstinacy, secretly impregnates two of the ova with his own sperm. It remains doubtful whose child is finally implanted in Melanie’s womb.

Visiting Melanie seven months later, Menachem finally learns of Melanie’s pregnancy. He soon discovers what Melanie did. He accepts his fatherhood and marries Melanie, although Felix has revealed his manipulation of the ICSI-process. In order to take revenge, Melanie reduces Felix’ name to a footnote in her publication on ICSI. She refuses to determine the fatherhood of her newborn son Adam with a DNA analysis. But Menachem convinces her to have an independent lab conduct an analysis and keep the results in a sealed envelope, only for Adam to know. 13 years later, after his Bar Mitzvah, Adam is allowed to open the envelope. But the audience can only guess who Adam’s genetic father is.

Visiting Melanie seven months later, Menachem finally learns of Melanie’s pregnancy. He soon discovers what Melanie did. He accepts his fatherhood and marries Melanie, although Felix has revealed his manipulation of the ICSI-process. To take revenge, Melanie reduces Felix’ name to a footnote in her publication on ICSI. She refuses to determine the fatherhood of her newborn son Adam genetically with a DNA analysis. But Menachem convinces her to have an independent lab conduct one and keep the results in a sealed envelope, only for Adam to know. 13 years later, after his Bar Mitzvah, Adam opens the envelope. But the audience can only guess who Adam’s genetic father is.

Themes

Ethics

The play’s central themes are the ethical questions regarding the consequences of ICSI-fertilization, a technology that challenges all existing ethical standards concerning family, parenthood and reproduction. The play is preluded by a quote from Walter Benjamin's essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, indicating that this technical reproducibility is now also applicable to human reproduction. The characters continually emphasize the importance of this invention for the future of mankind, hinting at ideas from Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

Melanie, one of the many self-confident women in Djerassi’s works, is portrayed as the champion of artificial insemination, liberating women not only from the biological clock, but from any male involvement in the creation of a child. She is proud that no man was participating in the insemination of her ovum. She looks optimistically into a future where women can conceive a child anytime, whether their men are dead, infertile or whether they themselves are in the menopause.

Felix, the villain of the play, represents male anxieties, worrying about the role of his sex in that new era of conception. In an act of jealousy and hurt male pride, he secretely inseminates one of Melanie’s ova with his own sperm to take revenge. Menachem also accuses Melanie of reducing men to the mere status of suppliers of sperm.

Many other ethical problems are touched: Might ICSI make male infertility become inheritable if an infertile man fathers a child in the test tube? What will be the consequences when women use their dead man’s sperm to get children? Felix even foresees the possibility of “instant orphans”, children created in the lab whose biological parents are already dead.

Parenthood

The question of parenthood is important throughout the play. The extremely self-confident Melanie is trying hard to fulfill both her role as the “mother of ICSI” and of a mother-to-be. As a scientist, she wants the best genetic combination to make her experiment a success. But finally, she gets the sperm from the man she loves, whom she has personally selected to be the father of her child, even if it involves putting an additional risk to the experiment, as Menachem’s sperm is severly damaged. So despite the betrayal and ethical problems involved, she thus opts for the traditional view of parenthood.

Adam (an obvious reference to the biblical Adam) embodies the key theme of the play as he is torn between the love for his “social father” Menachem and a scientific curiosity to find out who his genetic father is, raising the question of identity in a world where the traditional concept of family has been made obsolete by science. In accepting his fatherhood in spite of Melanie’s and Felix’ manipulations, Menachem becomes the integrative character of the play: “Paternity isn’t just the provision of a single sperm. It’s also a human relationship.. between father and son.” Menachem shows responsibility and unconditional love for his potential son. Djerassi’s message is that even in “the age of mechanical reproduction”, fertilization and parenthood can only be separated technically, not morally.

Tribal Culture

As in his science-in-fiction novels, Djerassi additionally aims to shed light on the tribal behavior of scientists, which is characterized as competitive and cold. Felix Frankenthaler represents the type of scientist for whom issues like priority or the order of names in articles outweigh ethical concerns. Priority is one of Djerassi's major motifs that he also elaborates on in his later plays Oxygen and Calculus.

But Djerassi also tries to introduce scientific work and the latest developments in reproductive medicine to the lay audience. His stage directions include a specific description and pictures of the ICSI-process that should be displayed during performances. In this way, Djerassi aims to bridge the gap between what happens in the scientists’ labs and the public awareness of that.

Alternative Versions

An Immaculate Misconception has been translated into 11 languages. The play is constantly being revised by Carl Djerassi. Recent changes include an appearance of the Roman goddess Flora and an alternative epilogue where Adam is confronted by a fraternal twin. Also the character names, their background and the setting change from production to production.

Productions

A one-act version of the play produced by William Archer was staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1998.

The 2-act version, produced by David Babani, was first staged at the New End Theatre, London, in 1999.

The first American production was staged at the Eureka Theatre, San Francisco, 1999.

The German version under the title “Unbefleckt” premiered May 29, 1999 in Vienna at the Jugendstiltheater am Steinhof.

An Immaculate Misconception has also been adapted for radio by the BBC, German WDR and Swedish Radio, and NPR.

References

• Djerassi, Carl (2000). An Immaculate Misconception. London: Imperial College Press. ISBN 1-86094-248-2.

External Links

• An Immaculate Misconception at Djerassi.com

Category:1998 plays