Plot

At her unconventional baby shower, a Black woman navigates the rollercoaster of IVF treatments while confronting personal loss, getting older, and systemic healthcare barriers in this bold, humorous one-woman performance.

SPADURA is a one-woman comedy film written and performed by Dahéli Hall (WONDER MAN, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, MADtv). After two years touring seven cities, Dahéli captures her unfiltered journey through infertility and IVF - confronting the baby industrial complex, the brutality of fertility treatment, and the unique obstacles faced by Black women in America. Funny, physical, and deeply personal. Winner, Best One-Woman Show, United Solo 2023.

SPADURA is a one-woman comedy film written and performed by Dahéli Hall (WONDER MAN, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, MADtv). The title is the film's big reveal.

Dahéli spent years writing, developing, and touring the show, taking it to seven cities while undergoing IVF(2022-2025) with producer Elizabeth Mei-Ling Yng-Wong before capturing on film. The film follows Dahéli as she takes the audience on her unfiltered, hilarious, and deeply personal fertility journey.

Through stand-up, storytelling, and props, Dahéli unapologetically confronts the baby industrial complex, the physical and financial brutality of fertility treatment, aging, and the unique obstacles faced by Black women in America. She weaves in personal anecdotes about herself, her Filipino husband, and her Caribbean parents as she candidly shares their shared quest to conceive a Ja-Haitia-Pino American baby. Her humor and vulnerability make the experience impossible to look away from.

Shot over two back-to-back live performances in a single night, the film captures the energy and intimacy of a live audience - real reactions, real laughter, real shock - while Dahéli moves through the space with full-body physical comedy. Live Taping Director Allison Caviness and producer Elizabeth Mei-Ling Yng-Wong carefully shaped the film to balance grief with comedy in favor of raw emotional truth that lands whether you have experienced fertility struggles or not.

Winner of Best One-Woman Show and Best Production at United Solo Spring 2023, and named DCTA Best of Fringe 2023, SPADURA is both a love letter to Dahéli's husband, parents, and "dog-ter" Carmen (as in daughter) and a rallying cry for anyone who has had to find comedy in pain.