BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer
Unexpected, quirky and provocative, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer is a unique, 70-minute stage performance about illness and the changing body over time. The show brings together Brian’s trilogy of work about his experiences with cancer (written between 2001 and 2011); challenging the stories of cancer survivors and cancer martyrs that have come before and infusing the “cancer story” with an urgency and humour which is sometimes inappropriate, often salacious and always, above all else, honest and open.
BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer was published by Oberon in 2012 & 2015. Order here.
Presented at Harvard Medical School, NY Academy of Medicine, Cape Town Live Art Festival, Seymour Centre Sydney, Performing Medicine, Contact Manchester, Colchester Arts Centre, Decibel Festival, Camden People's Theatre, and many more.
Photos by Joel Fildes and Dr. J
Starting from the moment of diagnosis, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer goes beyond stories of medical treatment to explore sexuality, gender and politics. Each of the three performances has toured independently throughout the world to theatres, cabarets, medical schools and galleries. In pulling the three shows together as one, BALL & Other Funny Stories About Cancer attempts to show that surviving cancer is only half the battle.
You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll want to perform a self-exam.
Reviews
“very funny… but it’s also tender and raw” – Exeunt Magazine
“If you’ve had cancer, you’ll be laughing all the way through. If you haven’t, you’ll feel a bit weird. But if you are in the latter camp, take note. Shit, it could be you.” – Disability Arts Online
“The performance is stellar… we feel like we are one of his friends and it is difficult not to respond to Lobel’s warmth.” – Manchurian Matters
“Moving, brutally honest but above all extremely funny…” – Cambridge News