A new play from local playwright Paul Schutte has opened in Hampton Roads. It is a stunning work that this reviewer predicts is destined for greatness.
Mr. Schutte describes this as a dramatic comedy, and it is truly an artful blending of both. Like all hit shows it is original, funny, and very entertaining. Like any great play, it is concerned with powerful issues of life and loss, happiness and sorrow. But best of all, it rises to the level of a truly rare play by transcending its subject matter and bringing insight into what it means to be human. It is a triumph.
The concept for Pirates of the Chemotherapy is deceptively simple: follow the lives of six women who work to survive breast cancer. In what seemed only a matter of minutes, we traveled with Judith (Melissa Mead) - a very busy but organized mother - down the roller-coaster drop from a long-delayed mammogram, to a cancer diagnosis, to mastectomy, through chemo-therapy, and out into a world that would never be the same. While wondering how and what she will do with herself, she encounters Nancy (Le’Royce Bratsveen), a woman exhuding positive vibes and energy, and who won’t take “No” for an answer. She convinces Judith that what she needs most is to attend Nancy’s support group. Despite some initial hestitation, Judith decides to attend.
The play then finds its home in the meetings of this support group. During seven sessions extending over a period of three months, we meet the other characters of the play and enter their lives. Joining Judith as a new member in the first session is Winnie (Donna Wolf), a woman with heart, bravado, and a hard edge. As we soon learn from her oft-quoted list of the thousand-reasons-why-Winnie-will-never-get-married, cancer is not the first hard knock she has taken in life. The irrepressible Doris (Annie Cacioppo) loves to talk and her pithy, plain-spoken insights into life frequently brought the play to a halt until the audience stopped laughing. Equally hillarious (and show-stopping) - but totally unique - is Peace (Ashlie Bruun Ranhorn), a space-cadet seemingly over-flowing with naivete and positive charma which could possibly be traced to her earlier life as the grand-mother of Marilyn Monroe. Last is Karen (Meg Brown), a woman who seems so shattered at the start that the only thing keeping her from a fetal position on the floor is her chair.
There is ample evidence of the tension found in most encounter groups: the shocking and the mundane vying for attention. In this case, we can also add competition between the hope for a happily-ever-after and the need to look death in the eye. For example: when Doris is hit with a sarcastic remark about how “good” she looks in the kerchief covering her bald head, she fires right back. “This is my super-hero outfit. I’m fighting one of the toughest boogers on the planet, and I’m winning!” Doris carried the day and whimsy topped despair.
Soon, we learn how the play gets its title. Karen’s emotional agony is the result of a husband running out on her after her double-mastectomy. Not only that, he has drained every dime and left her with nothing. Winnie, bolder and more direct than most, decides they should fight back. Nothing gives life purpose like a fight worth waging, and they’ll do it as pirates! Afterall, they already have the head-scarves and missing body-parts, so they don eye-patches and hooks and seek the husband’s hidden treasure. (The re-telling of this adventure is great fun). It turns out that the adoption of the Pirate attitude is the answer they all seek – taking-back control of their lives from the disease that has left them damaged.
It is here that we see how the play’s message expands to broader issues. The pirates’ concerns are immediate, not long term. And the infirmities of their bodies are no longer an issue; they are simply part of who they are. The women come to understand that Peace may have the answer. At first, it’s tempting to dismiss her as irrelevant and out-of-touch – but time and again her focus on living in the moment serves as the truest example for these women to follow. It brings her small and large moments of happiness that are contagious. (Her re-telling of her Captain Crunch experience is a delight for all!)
And then the transformations begin. A woman who could only see herself as a reflection of her husband comes to see herself as a person of worth. A woman who had so carefully crafted a life where she would not be pitied realizes that her efforts have only served to wall herself off from happiness. She can finally see that love is not pity. A woman who pretends to be ill rather than risk the loss of the companionship of the courageous women who come to the support group learns that she is valued simply for who she is. And a woman who has always hoped to put the experience behind her with as little hurt as possible comes to embrace the life-changing experience. Breast cancer brought them together, but they solve the problems of life.
Director Brandon Lyles did a fine job with the production, keeping just the right mix of action in a play that takes place almost entirely around a grouping of chairs. His minimalist staging kept the focus on the actors and the words, where it belonged.
I will look forward to more productions of this play. While it would be hard to imagine a better handling of the comedy in the show (with special kudos going to Ms. Cacioppi and Ms. Ranhorn), we were only beginning to see the drama – the compelling complexity of the characters - in this premier performance. Judith and Nancy, in particular, seemed too constrained – as though they were representations of their character’s “characteristic” in this mix instead of being full-bodied characters in their own right. It would have been more fun to see these talented actresses grappling with the tensions their characters confronted as the play progressed. Even Winnie and Karen in their climactic transformational scene didn’t stray far from the bounds of the character that had been already established. It was a transformation without change and lacked punch it could have had. There is still room for actors and directors to roam with this powerful material in the future.
As a male, breast cancer is not likely to threaten my life, but I left the theater deeply moved as I thought about how the courage and love of these women pointed so truly toward the best path through all of the life-changing events that occur in our lives. Like the organization that supported the production, this play about breast cancer went Beyond Boobs.
Pirates of the Chemotherapy will play at the Mary T. Christian Auditorium on the campus of Thomas Nelson Community College on October 23 and 24 at 8:00PM, and October 25 at 3:00PM. A portion of the proceeds will benefit Sisters Network, Inc. – Norfolk Affiliate Chapter, Beyond Boobs, and Susan G. Komen for the Cure. For tickets, call 757-224-8937, or go to MKTix.com to order online.
(This review was first published on September 29, 2009 for Iron Street Productions.)
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