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6 Reviews for Cancer My Ass!

1. Poignant, funny, hearty, honest - all that life is, not to mention - Mikael loves kitties!

   Comment by Katherine — March 2, 2009 @ 5:15 pm

2. “Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the other room. Whatever we were to each other, we still are. Call me by my old familiar name. Speak to me in the same easy way you always have. Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.”— as quoted by Mikael Rudolph in Cancer My Ass!

   Last night my Beloved, my brother-in-law and I went to see a new play called Cancer My Ass! The 45-minute stage play is part of the Spirit in the House Film Festival, a nine-day series of interfaith spiritual performances running at Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church in Minneapolis. The festival was coordinated by a Presbyterian colleague, Rev. Dean J. Seal.

   The story chronicles the relationship of Mikael and his sister Cassie who find one another battling cancer at the same time. Cassie, her husband and children live in Italy during most of her illness. Mikael visits her there during one of her hospitalizations.

   To tell the story, Mikael uses journal entries and portions of personal conversations he had with his sister during his visit in Italy. He relies as well on conversations they shared on the phone and by email. He uses poems, prayers and other materials he gathered during Cassie’s sickness. Cassie dies at home in Minnesota on November 17, 2008, just five years after their father died in the same bed from the same disease.

   About midway through Cassie’s last year with cancer, Mikael is diagnosed with rectal cancer (hence, the title). He intertwines the two stories of their treatment modalities and concomitant experiences with skill and beauty. His wit is, at times, brutally honest; his compassion and loving kindness for his sister and (eventually) for himself penetrate the heart with sorrow and inspiration.

   I didn’t cry as the performance ended as my Beloved did; I resonated with it. As one who, between the ages of 29 and 34, suffered the ravages of Ulcerative Colitis, I could perfectly relate to his fury over the inadequacies of the American healthcare system, the indignities of rectal disease, the rigors of treatment and the relief brought on by those bliss-producing “legal drugs.”

   Life-threatening illness captures your attention incisively. It brings you face to face with mortality. Critical illness isn’t simply an imbalance in our anatomical systems; it is a force powerful enough to carry with it emotions almost greater than the human spirit can bear.

   Such illness, however large, cannot overcome the healing power of the Great Doctor dancing within us. Though life-threatening (or life-taking) illness forces us to dig deep into the well of our spiritual reserves, it can also carry us to pinnacles of the human experience with its power to overcome adversities including death.

   When the play was over I approached Mikael Rudolph, the playwright and performer, extended my arms to hug him and as I did I thanked him and offered my appreciation. Earlier in my life, I’m sure I would have told him how I could relate to the trials and tribulations of intestinal disease. Not last night, though. Life is teaching me “it’s rarely about me, and if it is about me, it’s always in relationship to the other.”

   As Martin Buber writes: “Through the Thou a person becomes I.”

   Comment by Rev. Terry Roos — March 2, 2009 @ 6:14 pm

3. This show touched my heart and soul. It brought tears to my eyes and awakened memories of my mother’s 3 year death journey. Mikael embodies the resillient human spirit and value of relationships and beauty over material stuff.

   Comment by Carol McCormick — March 4, 2009 @ 3:46 pm

4. It was a privilege to be present in the audience for Mikael’s show. It is an absolute triumph. He weaves his own journey and his sister’s together with sensitivity but without sentimentality. The piece is beautifully structured, unified by a single pantomime repeated at three points in the show. A single pantomime, performed for one woman at a hospital window, that is now for us all. The arts are as necessary to us as food and drink and medicine - anyone who tells you differently needs to see this show. Mikael takes the outrage that is cancer and the experience of those who have lived with it, lived through it, died from it - and transforms that experience - and us. Language and movement contain fear, anger, pain, joy, humor, love - and what emerges is art. Do not be squeamish about coming to Cancer My Ass. Call it “that cancer show” in the lobby if you must. But you can carry this performance into the darkest places of your life - yea, verily, where the sun does not shine - and use it to find your way home.

   Comment by Paula — March 7, 2009 @ 5:29 pm

5. I was moved by the depth of feeling in this performance. Mikael Rudolph’s ability to give us this story and still manage the distance needed to tell it well is genuine artistry. Art, some say, is discipline and eloquence in sync. I believe I saw that synchronization last night.

   Comment by Nan Montgomery — March 7, 2009 @ 6:46 pm

6. Oh Mikael, I was so moved by your show that I had to comment…and I’ll bet that the government funded the show too–Seriously, you call this trash ART?? I wonder if a good crap would make you feel better, Mikael? I heard somewhere it cured YOUR cancer

   Comment by Agatha — March 19, 2009 @ 1:20 am

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