With Humor, 'Dead And Breathing' Dives Into End-Of-Life Struggles
The play Dead and Breathing begins boldly. Sixty-eight-year-old Carolyn takes off her towel and steps into a bathtub completely naked. She's bathed by her chatty nurse, Veronika.
The wealthy, cantankerous woman is dying of cancer. Carolyn, played by Lizan Mitchell, wants to die sooner rather than later, and tries to convince the nurse (N.L. Graham) to help her do that.
It's one of the most talked-about new plays at this year's Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, W.Va., which runs through Aug. 3.
Playwright Chisa Hutchinson started writing Dead and Breathing about two years ago, not long after taking care of her own mother, who was dying of uterine cancer.
"I wound up having to stay with her for a little while, taking leave from work," says Hutchinson. "I mean, it's a trip having to change your mom's diaper, you know. It's a lot."
Beginning the play the way she does, with the bathing scene, Hutchinson disarms the audience. While she was writing, she sought feedback from John Eisner, artistic director of the Lark Play Development Center in New York.