New play at Phoenix Theatre Company explores the Arizona icon’s prickly friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s friendship with “best buddy” and ideological polar opposite Antonin Scalia famously inspired a 2013 comic opera that turned legal briefs into arias.

Now comes a much more conventional treatment of “the Notorious R.B.G.’s” relationship with the first woman on the Supreme Court, Arizona icon Sandra Day O’Connor.

Call them frenemies.

“Sisters in Law,” a two-woman play getting its world-premiere production at Phoenix Theatre Company, is based on the same-titled 2015 book by Linda Hirshman. It was adapted for the stage by Jonathan Shapiro, a law professor at UCLA and a TV writer and producer who has worked on “The Blacklist,” “The Firm” and “Life.”

It was a no-brainer for Phoenix Theatre to jump at the chance to claim bragging rights for launching “Sisters in Law” into the regional-theater circuit. A quintessential Arizona character, O’Connor was raised on a ranch (from whence came her go-to story about castrating bulls) and earned a law degree at Stanford in 1952, only to be offered a job as a legal secretary. But with a mix of folksy charm and frontier toughness, she carved out a career that took her to the Arizona Senate and the state appeals court.

Both her grace and her steel are on full display in Laura Wernette’s delightful portrayal. When we meet her in 1993, O’Connor is 63 going on 36, an aerobicized dynamo who is delighted, after 13 years as the only woman on the court, to welcome Ginsburg (played by Eileen T’Kaye) into the smallest of sororities. But not only do the two women have different legal and political philosophies, their personalities immediately clash as well. They quickly fall into a prickly game of one-ups womanship, offering “friendly” advice bordering on mutual condescension.

One thing they agree on is that women should no longer be second-class citizens. But O’Connor favors an incremental approach based on compromise and consensus-building, while Ginsburg arrives fired up to topple all the legal precedents holding up the patriarchy.

Ginsburg’s reputation as a serious-minded crusader is well-earned, but in interviews she often displays a sly sense of humor around the edges. Shapiro’s script, however, is rather lacking in the slyness department, and T’Kaye’s Ginsburg comes off as a single-minded scold, or, as O’Connor puts it, an ideologue. As a result, the women’s rivalry comes through loud and clear, but their affection for each other is muted and often feels forced.

At the end of the play, Ginsburg seems to “win” the argument over incrementalism. But when it comes to winning over the audience, “Sisters in Law” is all about O’Connor.

Phoenix Theatre Company: ‘Sisters in Law’

Reviewed Friday, April 5. Continues through Sunday, April 28. Phoenix Theatre, 1825 N. Central Ave. Demand pricing. 602-254-2151, phoenixtheatre.com.

Did you love “Sisters in Law”? Talk to the writer about arts and culture at [email protected] or 602-444-4896. Follow him at facebook.com/LengelOnTheater and twitter.com/KerryLengel.

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