In Lisa Loomer’s provocative play “The Waiting Room,” three women meet in a doctor’s office. While they are of different time periods and from different regions of the world, each of them has taken extraordinary measures to attain beauty  and they are all paying the price.

Forgiveness from Heaven, an 18th-century Chinese woman, has gangrene because her feet have been bound to keep them small. Victoria, a 19th-century woman, is suffering from hysteria and organ damage from being too-tightly corseted, both physically and emotionally. Wanda, a present-day secretary, has had breast implants three times and is facing a mastectomy because of breast cancer.

“It’s about their journey into their different worlds of beauty, how they deal with their own problems and how they bond to get through them,” said Julie Noonan, a Kansas University doctoral student who is directing University Theatre’s production of the play.

Noonan said the play, which was a runner-up for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1994, explores two themes: What is beautiful? Where do we look to find beauty?

“It’s about the dichotomy between health and beauty and how much they don’t go together and how they work against each other,” she said. “It hits home (for the characters) because their bodies are turning on them.”

“The Waiting Room” is episodic and structured like a film script. No surprise since Loomer co-wrote “Girl Interrupted,” which was turned into a film starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie.

“It has 21 scenes,” Noonan said of the two-hour play. “It moves cinematically. It was a challenge defining the different locations. Nine actors play 22 characters so there’s a lot of quick shifts.”

The play also contains humor.

“The characters are lovable, and while journeying with them, we are taken on a historical trip involving the medical profession and our increasing dependence on science and the humans who control science,” she said. “The fears of our own bodies, along with the well-intentioned attempts of doctors, make us laugh and shudder at the same time.”

Noonan, who is specializing in musical theater and is especially interested in the roles of women in musicals, said “The Waiting Room” is part of KU’s Women’s Play Festival being staged this season in the Inge Theater in Murphy Hall.

Cast members are Dianne-Yvette Cook, Benjamin Lawrence, David Martin, Christopher Drake, Becky Lake, Bob Dorsey, Emily Hippert, Patrick Pugh and Erika Crane.