World Premiere of Snowdrops and Chlorine (part of Staging Breast Cancer Trilogy)
Continuing to promote "Snowdrops and Chorine," my first play to be released to the world this coming Wednesday at 7 pm EST (you can set a reminder via this link: https://youtu.be/1vPh1zcGyW8), below, please find a review conducted by a specialist in psychotherapy.
SNOWDROPS AND CHLORINE
Review
As a psychotherapist with a background in the Cancer community, I was given an opportunity to read Snowdrops and Chlorine, the second play in Catalina Florina Florescu’s Staging Breast Cancer: A Trilogy. Within the relatively short text of the play, I encountered numerous aspects of experiences familiar to me through my previous work as program director at Gilda’s Club Chicago, a Cancer Support Community. Below, I have highlighted some of the themes that I have often witnessed in my work with those people impacted by a Cancer diagnosis.
Breast Cancer in Men
Men can get breast cancer. The falsely idealized image of man and masculinity is shattered by this notion. The audience experiences this when introduced to Teddy as he smashes his reflection in the mirror.
The Dangers of Misinformation and Ignorance
The second scene, Back to School, explores the need to challenge any embarrassment around biological differences in service of health education. How can children learn about health when even the instructor is not comfortable discussing anatomy? Gabby challenges the instructor’s self-denial of his own embarrassment with health information she received from the nurse.
In order to live our daily lives, most of us engage in a certain amount of denial. Otherwise, no one would want to leave their front doors for fear of random, harmful events. Most of us need to earn a living, so we leave. No one wants to be diagnosed with breast cancer either, but we must negotiate with our denial in favor of mammogram screenings to increase treatment success and early detection. Like Gabby, we must free ourselves of potential embarrassment and denial in order to receive an “F” – Freedom.
Accurate health information encouraging annual screenings with appropriate referral allows us to confront our ignorance and to benefit from taking appropriate action. Furthermore, the right information at the right time is important in reducing patient stress . The importance of this is reflected in the matter of Gabby’s court case in the fourth scene. The third scene, Grief, also emphasizes patients needing the right information at the right time. Oncofertility addresses the reproductive needs of patients prior to starting chemotherapy. Sperm banking and egg retrieval are now topics that are discussed with patients prior to beginning chemotherapy to avoid the grief experienced by the couple who were not given the opportunity to make informed decisions prior to the wife beginning chemotherapy.
Loneliness and the Power of Support
Cancer may create strong feelings of loneliness and isolation for the person who is diagnosed. Family members and friends may be supportive by offering rides to chemotherapy, delivering cooked meals, or simply by being a lifeline to the world outside of hospital visits. Despite everyone working together, that sense of loneliness can be pervasive for the person in treatment. Snowdrops and Chlorine masterfully relates this experience to the audience through the aesthetic distance created in the opening scene. The characters and audience are together, while each remains separate.
The Body’s Betrayal
Teddy had pride in his body as a former athlete. His story includes the anger that a person diagnosed with cancer can experience when he feels betrayed by his own body. The enemy is within. Gabby recounts her sister’s experience of “hungry wolves” devouring her from the inside of her body. Through support, Cancer survivors may find their own ways to come to terms with this perceived betrayal and to make peace with themselves again.
Transformation
The Cancer experience is a grief experience. Acknowledging change, meeting adversity head on, experiencing fear and loneliness, and finally coming to accept life or death on its own terms are all part of the package. So are strength, resilience, and transformation. In the survivors’ stories, the women embrace the transformative nature of their experiences. Painful experiences may be channeled, expressed, and transformed through creative expression or other endeavors, not unlike carbon being transformed into a diamond under extreme pressure.
Supporting People Impacted by Cancer
The reason why Cancer support communities exist is to provide knowledge, support, and empowerment to men, women, and children whose lives have been impacted by cancer in any way. These communities, including Maggie’s Centre’s in the U.K., are free of charge. As shown in Snowdrops and Chlorine, the cost of Cancer care is enough of a challenge.
A centralized place online or in person to obtain information, tips, support, and resources is helpful in dealing with the challenges presented by a Cancer diagnosis. Each of the characters in the play would have had their paths made a little easier with the support of community. The goal is empowerment and empowerment requires access to knowledge.
Snowdrops and Chlorine is an effective vehicle allowing the audience to experience an array of issues related to Cancer firsthand. Awakening minds to the challenges Cancer presents, is a step towards addressing those challenges. The hope inspired by the survivors’ stories is a healing balm to encourage us to meet those challenges. If Cancer smashes the picture we had of life, anyone impacted by Cancer (friends, family, or patients/survivors) would find a shard of that experience captured in this play. Catalina Florina Florescu holds a mirror up for us to see the inequities and we quickly achieve clarity on our way to empowerment.
Rebecca Fritz, LCSW, JD
One final note: The review ends here, but I would also invite you to read another one:https://thetheatretimes.com/disrupting-taboos-staging-cancer-snowdrops-and-chlorines-eruptive-intervention/ And, before you join me this Wednesday, it may help to know about the play from me (click on the above link).