A rural artist from Laois has performed in ‘Illness As Metaphor’, an adaptation of American critic Susan Sontag’s book, by renowned Dublin-based theatre company, Dead Centre, which won best ensemble at the Fringe Awards recently.
Cabrini Cahill who grew up in Abbeyleix but who now lives in Emo, was one of six participants living with longterm illness in the groundbreaking text adapted for theatre.
In the book, Susan Sontag set out to diagnose the problem with the way we think about illness.
The author focused on the language surrounding illness, language that in her view, can literally kill.
Whether it’s the metaphor of ‘battling cancer’ or the image of ‘frontline workers’ during the pandemic, the author contended that metaphors distort our way of thinking since neither cancer nor Covid are stages of war.
Cabrini trained as an actor at the Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College, Dublin. “Based in Laois, I have worked predominantly as a theatre-maker but also have worn various artistic hats from theatre facilitator to outreach officer and mentor,” she said.
Making a living from the arts is a real challenge, acknowledged Cabrini who also trained as a nurse.
“I’m personally lucky enough to have built my own rehearsal space years ago so having that base is so important in reducing costs.
“Funding is great when it is awarded as it frees me up to just concentrate on the creative process which is my area of expertise,” she said.
“I have been successful in receiving Arts Council funding numerous times to produce work alongside local funding from the Dunamaise Arts Centre and Laois Arts Office.
“I am inspired by the local landscape and people and most of the shows I create combine professionals and non-professional performers,” she said.
“In recent years, I experimented with using theatre as a game. I developed large scale immersive shows for music and arts festivals such as Electric Picnic, Body and Soul and Festival of the Fires to name a few.
“’To Bee or not to Bee’ was one such show which the Department of the Environment funded through LA21, for several years to tour schools in the midlands and Dublin.
“My fellow actor, Claire Johnston, also from Emo, and I presented ourselves as Shaky and Speare, an unlikely pair of carnival characters who were gifted the book of the future and a wheel of fortune by mother nature in a quest to understand, play with and possibly resolve the issues of climate change.
“We set the challenge to the children with one class playing the 30 small characters as part of the show,” said Cabrini.
During Covid, she returned to nursing and noting that day care centres had closed and the potential isolation for older people, she approached Dunamaise Arts Centre with a proposal to set up a multi platform project called ‘Always Human’ where artists connected with this audience.
“Ann-Marie Kelly, award-winning radio presenter and documentary maker; Pauline Conroy, artist; Denise Curtin, poet, and Damien Bowe, singer, responded in a meaningful way to create new work with the 100 county-wide participants. The Dunamaise, Creative Ireland and the Keep Well campaign supported the work,” said Cabrini.
She spent the month of July in Athens under the direction of UK-based theatre director David Glass of the David Glass Ensemble, exploring his theatre training framework called the Alchemy of The Extraordinary with 11 other international students.
For the performance of ‘Illness As Metaphor’, author Susan Sontag’s experience of being diagnosed with cancer three times resonated with Cabrini.
“She wrote the essay in an attempt to deconstruct the various metaphors that are used to describe an individual’s experience of cancer and Tuberculosis, illnesses that started out as mysterious, just as long Covid is these days,” said Cabrini.
“A metaphor, she states, is a word that is used to describe something else.
“For me, I have never found it accurate or helpful that war metaphors are used to describe the experience of having cancer. ‘She battled’.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me. I’m no soldier. I think of myself as one who was first diagnosed with bowel cancer at 19 and has had two subsequent diagnosis as someone who lives with cancer rather than actively fights it,” Cabrini said.
“So when I hear fundraising ads calling out: ‘Let’s fight it together’ or read obituaries where the person is described as ‘losing the battle with cancer,’ it jars with me.
“It is an illness not a battle, a very serious illness that is not the responsibility of the patient including myself to arm up and get a gun, I suggest it is more useful to do the opposite and be attuned to what is actually happening in the body not the head or any societal idea of what cancer is,” she said.
“I have a predisposition to cancer as I carry a gene which is called Lynch Family Syndrome.
“Basically my body cannot detect that cancer is growing in the first place so it very quickly escalates to a grade 4 and because it cannot recognise the disease, it also can’t repair it without help.
“I’m lucky that I know my body well and that I can present myself in time to doctors who have the expertise and modern medicines to reverse the tumour growing.”
Cabrini got involved in ‘Illness As Metaphor’ after seeing an ad from Dead Centre theatre company looking for people with experience of long-term illness to collaborate with their directors, Bush Moukarzel and Ben Kidd, and assist them in adapting the book for stage.
She said: “With my list of illnesses, I believed I qualified. I was picked alongside five others with various illnesses including cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain, Tuberculosis and long Covid.”
The play was created over two years. “We shared our personal stories. Little did we realise that we too would become performers of each other’s stories in the play alongside Ben, one of the directors.
“‘This is not therapy’ was one of my favourite lines from the play as it described my experience of the process. The process made me relook at my story.
“The fact that I had trained and worked as a nurse probably underlies why I looked at my illness as a list of facts, without metaphor,” Cabrini said.
“Participating made me look at the psychological effect years after diagnosis. Themes of loneliness, isolation, fear, self-blame, anger and disassociation were explored.
“The ‘reliving’ of our experiences deepened my own insight in describing what it is like to live with long-term illness. It’s not really every day conversation. If people ask how I am, I don’t necessarily list off my ailments. I’m delighted to just carry on.
“It doesn’t sound much fun as a theatre topic but it actually was. Audiences at the Dublin Fringe Festival were moved to standing ovations each night.
“Strangers came up to express their gratitude for expressing their story. One of my friends said she was crying listening to James as ‘Cabrini’ relaying my experience.
“She said she cried, then noted how she was laughing ‘at you ‘ which in turn made her feel guilty. ‘It was a rollercoaster of emotions’. I suppose that describes the experience of illness at times more accurately than some fictitious battle.”
Cabrini said she was delighted that Dead Centre took a gong at the Fringe Awards.
“I personally have a history of working as a theatre-maker and performer, James Ireland who played me, is an award-winning playwright.
“Eamonn Doyle trained as an actor but had to give it up because of his illness. Most people will know Una Mullally, the journalist.
“Megan Robinson is a visual artist and Conor Lenehan had no professional experience of performing.
“Ben Kidd also played a performing role which is not his usual position in the company. We were cared for in our varied vulnerabilities with skill by the company.”
It is hoped that the performance will tour the country. Cabrini also hopes to bring David Glass of the David Glass Ensemble to Laois to facilitate a three-day taster of his theatre training framework next year.
“I’m in the early stages of creating a new ensemble so anyone who may be interested can contact me on cabrini2@gmail.com or visit www.lynchsyndromeireland.com
“There is also a closed Facebook Group, Lynch Syndrome Ireland.”
