Skin opens with two sisters chatting on stage about Sadie’s cancer, and even laughing about it.
Sadie, in her early twenties, has had a melanoma which has been excised but she is soon back to the clinic for the result of further tests. Now she finds the cancer has spread and it requires further excision and more examinations.
In a moving portrayal by Juliette Imbert, Sadie goes through the stages of what is now called, with unintentional whimsy, ‘Your cancer journey.’ This short, unresolved piece is more a slice of life played out than a play but it is stronger for being understated to the right pitch.
Skin shows through Sadie’s story how personality disappears with a cancer diagnosis, and people see only the disease. ‘My sister treats me like a patient, my doctor treats me like a problem to be solved’, she says. Despite her painful fragility, Sadie struggles to retain something of herself, making unfunny jokes made because you have to say something and humour helps keep the fear away. Words of praise for her stoicism are rejected, ‘I don’t want to be brave. Of course I’m going to live with it, what else can I do?’
A bare set with white chairs and black tables gives us a variety of hospital and work settings. We meet Sadie’s annoying work colleague who says with no trace of sincerity, ‘You know I’m here if you want to talk?’ and the even more annoying boss who thinks of Sadie’s illness as a productivity issue.
As each procedure fails to eradicate the cancer it leads to more tests, more treatment.
When Sadie is put in a CT scanner, amid noise and lights the experience is simulated by a dance of blue-gowned medical technicians carrying neon lights. Her body temperature falls during an operation and she has to be warmed up with a hairdryer by a nurse chatting about his holidays. The normalness of cancer for the people who deal with it every day is contrasted with Sadie’s horror and bewilderment at the uncanny experience she is going through.
This piece evokes the smell of the hospital with nice touches like the bundles of advice literature handed out to patients and the ghastly elevator music on the phone while Sadie waits for the results of yet another test.