Lung Cancer

Its November. Im starting to realise that playing an older woman with lung cancer is testing. Carry the illness through each scene is tricky especially seeing as it has to progress and become more prominent and intense. 

My Block? 

I dont know how to play my given circumstance. 

To get through this block I have decided to look closely at the reality of what lung cancer actually does to the body. How terminal illness effects people and phycological state. 

I began by looking at the NHS and got a basic idea of what the symptoms are.  

There are usually no signs or symptoms in the early stages of lung cancer. However, symptoms develop as the condition progresses.

The main symptoms of lung cancer are listed below. If you have any of these, you should see your GP:

• a cough that doesn’t go away after two or three weeks
• a long-standing cough that gets worse
• persistent chest infections
• coughing up blood
• an ache or pain when breathing or coughing
• persistent breathlessness
• persistent tiredness or lack of energy
• loss of appetite or unexplained weight loss

It seems that the area which is most effected is the chest. I remember an exercise by 'Complicite' where you are in partners and imagine there is a bamboo stick between one another. You must sustain the space between both people as you move around the space. I made this work through imagining the pain of the bamboo sticking into my chest. This is something Im going to apply when playing Steph. I need to imagine the chest pain while Im in the scenes. A sharp tensing pain in the chest would definitely effect the posture. 

A Woman's experience of lung cancer and the prospect of death….

Ive been reading this woman's blog. Its sometimes quite graphic but I think that its important to address the reality of the illness. I found her first post Particularly help as she breaks down the process of diagnosis which is actually rather unusual seeing as she wasn't a smoker and only in her 30's. This was relevant to my research because she breaks it down over a few months. The symptoms of not only caughing but coughing until you throw up. In other posts such as 'The Frog List' I saw her approach to death. Acceptance. Steph finds this but it was interesting to here in real words. 

Blog: Jessica Rice Lung Cancer Patient

My last line in the play is 'Im certain death isn't the worst thing.' A peacful carm felt by some or a state of shock to others. These emotions are often felt by the terminally ill. I hope to find this in Steph's Journey.