Illness as Metaphor – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review
Dead Centre

7th – 14th of Sept at Project Arts Centre

Photo © Nancy Crampton – Image Edit: Jason Booher

Adapted from the book by Susan Sontag

Despite the theatre company involved, I was a bit concerned about this production. A play based on a book about Illness by the well-known academic and intellectual Susan Sontag could be a bit… dry? Those worries were quickly dispelled in this production by Dead Centre theatre company, who know a thing or two about dealing with serious topics in a light-hearted manner.

Sontag wrote Illness as Metaphor (1978) in response to her own diagnosis of Cancer. It’s a work in which she ‘challenged the victim-blaming in the language” that is often used to describe various serious illnesses such as Cancer and TB.

Dead Centre put a call out on social media for people who have been affected by serious illness in some manner. The production focuses on the lives of six individuals who responded to that call (Cabrini Cahill, Eamonn Doyle, James Ireland, Conor Lenehan, Una Mullally, and Megan Robinson). We hear stories of how they discovered their illnesses and the impact it had on their lives.

Instead of having the individuals tell their own stories, the company used the clever device of having the individuals tell each other’s stories.  The play is introduced by Dead Centre’s own Ben Kidd, who decides early on that he will play the part of Susan Sontag. He is soon joined on stage by Una Mullally, who plays the part of Kidd, and so on and so on. This artifice allows for what could be difficult and heart-wrenching tales to become comic.

It is difficult to search for an ending in a work such as this, and the finale of this production goes off on a tangent which is not quite as strong as what went before. Despite this, the early scenes are bright and extremely well crafted. It’s a play that delves into meaty topics without feeling dark or overly depressing. It’s refreshing to see these courageous individuals on stage, telling their stories. Serious illness affects the lives of the majority of people in Ireland today, either directly or indirectly, so it’s about time it was discussed on our stages also. It’s a play that is smart and funny in equal measure.