Photo: Hunter Canning
by: JK Clarke
“Tough titty,” to school kids, means “too bad for you — deal with it!” But in Tough Titty, the play, now through May 11 at Paradise Factory, the taunt is much more serious. Tough Titty is a play about Angela (Ami Brabson), a 37-year-old African American mother of two (one of whom she is still breast-feeding) in Brooklyn, who discovers a disconcerting lump on her breast. Not believing herself vulnerable, she asks a close friend, a doctor, to feel the lump. Her friend (Nikole Salter), quietly alarmed, cautiously tells Angela to have a follow-up examination. And that examination bears the worst news possible: late stage breast cancer.
There can be little that is truly uplifting in a play about breast cancer—a horrible, evil disease—despite all efforts to the contrary. Even messages of hope tend to be drowned in the futility and rampaging nature of the disease. But Tough Titty attempts to find those messages, and to impart a positive vibe. But, it’s difficult. We watch as Angela feels isolated by those she loves—from her friends with their cockamamie notions of healing and health to her husband (a subtle, but impactful Victor Williams) who is unwilling to acknowledge the severity of the situation.
So how will she—and how well will she—fight this horrible disease? Well, as best as she can, ferociously, and with the help and kindness of strangers. But the trip there is not usual, not easy, and not one that any can anticipate. Angela has every kind of setback imaginable, her friends are not as helpful as they should be (offering anecdotal, sometimes absurdly mystical advice) and her mother and husband are so out of touch with the real world that they do nothing for her presence of mind or well being. Angela is stuck in a world where both dealing with the present atrocity (her cancer) and the ambiguity of its origin (her continual questioning ‘why me?’) that no peace or presence of mind is available to her. Her cancer worsens and she wallows further.
Tough Titty is not the first play to deal with the physical and emotional ravages of cancer, and it is not one of the best to do so. Oni Faida Lampley, who wrote Tough Titty based on the cancer that overtook her, died April 28, 2008 at the age of 49. Ms. Lampley clearly wanted to depict her struggle, but also the struggle of fellow cancer sufferers. At times it feels like an homage to all the people in her life. A recognition of both their contributions and their contributing frustration. And though it is likely that her life with cancer was a swirl of chaos and confusion, it doesn’t play well on stage because it tries to do too many things at once. A more focussed storyline would have served the production better, as would have an extensive editing session. Furthermore, there is too much effort in the play to demonstrate innumerable experiences: too many typical doctor-types, nurse personalities and well-meaning, but harsh friend clichés. All these are done with actors taking on accents and personalities that they are not particularly suited to.
Clearly Ms Lampley’s struggle was a horrendous one, and her friends and admirers have tried to do justice to her play on the matter. But it is too specific and too personal to land well. The more removed and often abstract nature of Margaret Edison’s 1995 Pulitzer Prize winning masterpiece, Wit, is more effective at conveying the anguish and frustration of cancer. Tough Titty is sometimes too personal, too detailed and too specific to effectively connect to an audience.
Tough Titty. Through May 11 at Paradise Factory (64 East 4th Street). www.smarttix.com
