Tits and Balls: Cancer and Performance brings together two performances concerned with presenting the body after cancer by Brian Lobel (Queen Mary, University of London) and Emily Underwood-Lee (University of Glamorgan). Both artists share a concern with the performance of bodies and gender, particularly bodies marginalised by illness and surgery. BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer and Titillation are solo autobiographical performances responding to the artist’s personal experiences of cancer. Both performances will be followed by q+a sessions with the artists. Wednesday 9th February 2011, 5pm, CB218, Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan, Adam Street, Cardiff, CF24 2FN BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer written and performed by Brian Lobel BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer is a performance about illness and the changing body over time. Presented together, the trilogy of work written in 2003, 2006 and 2009 challenges the stories of cancer survivors and cancer martyrs that have come before – infusing the “cancer story” with an urgency and humour which is sometimes inappropriate, often salacious and always, above all else, honest and open. Starting from the moment of diagnosis with testicular cancer in 2001, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer goes beyond stories of cancer treatments to explore sexuality, gender and politics. Each of the three performances have toured extensively throughout the world in theatres, cabarets, medical schools and galleries. Putting the three shows together as one, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer attempts to show that surviving cancer is only half the battle. Brian Lobel is a New York-born, London-based performer whose work focuses on autobiography and isolated bodies. He is currently undertaking his PhD research (Playing the Cancer Card: Illness, Performance and Documentation) at Queen Mary, University of London, where he is also a Visiting Lecturer. He is an Associate Artist for Clod Ensemble's Performing Medicine and received a Wellcome Trust Arts Award for his project Fun With Cancer Patients. www.blobelwarming.com Thursday 10th February 2011, 6pm, People’s Palace Drama Studio, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End Rd, London, E1 4NS Titillation written and performed by Emily Underwood-Lee, Choreographed by Kylie Ann Smith Titillation takes a humorous look at the post-operative body and considers who and what can be sexy after breast cancer. Warning, this performance will feature dancing breasts, sparkly scars and gratuitous nudity. When I got breast cancer I watched Dirty Dancing over and over again. Then I heard that Patrick was ill as well, pancreatic cancer. I started to dream that we would both get better and we would dance the last dance from Dirty Dancing and we would do the lift! Our bodies broken and battered and I am a terrible dancer (when I was 14 I got asked to leave my ballet class because I was so bad) but he was a professional and “you’re a strong partner, you could lead anybody”. So we will still do the lift and it will be triumphant and fantastic. And then I’m going to seduce someone… Emily Underwood-Lee is a performer based in South Wales. She is currently undertaking a PhD (The Body Exposed: Strategies for Confronting Objectification in Contemporary Women’s Autobiographical Performance) at the University of Glamorgan, where she also works as Research Assistant at the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling. http://emilyunderwoodlee.wordpress.com/ Both performances are free but booking is essential. Please reply to either Brian Lobel (blobelization@gmail.com ) or Emily Underwood-Lee (efunderw@glam.ac.uk) for booking and more information. |
| web site: emilyunderwoodlee.wordpress.com/ |
| e-mail: efunderw@glam.ac.uk |
Monday, January 24, 2011 |
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