‘Don't Cancer Me Can’ is a highly personal physical theatre performance based on true stories of the team. As we work on our selves and discover new aspects of ourselves, we may at times come across things that we hate about ourselves. Disliking a part of our selves may result in us feeling conflicted. How can we then move from a place of conflict to acceptance, so that we can see and love ourselves for who we are and who we can become?

This performance demonstrated the possibilities that emerge via the work on the self in actor training. Split Theatre attempts to marry self-development with theatre, and in so doing, we bring theatre into the community for personal growth and for social healing. For each rehearsal/performance, as each actor re-tells their story in the presence of the team and of audience members, they inevitably discover new findings for themselves.

The Split Theatre ensemble, comprising seven members (who have been through 10 weeks of Split Theatre’s Work On The Self pilot programme from July-Sept 2021) performed the piece. They have also facilitated the inaugural public run of the programme that wrapped up on 11th December 2021. After close to twenty weeks of work, they brought ‘Don’t Cancer Me Can’ to the Arts House as an opening launch to Split Theatre’s Work On The Self training wing.

Each actor encodes their memories with clearly articulated actions that form a repeatable movement sequence. As an audience member, you can choose to interpret the movement sequence in any way you want to - what does it mean to you?; how does it make you feel?; what memories of yours come up when watching a movement sequence? For Don’t Cancer Me Can, we used text as well, so instead of merely interpreting movement, audience members could choose to listen to the texts delivered by each actor to figure out each of their stories!

Marianne Williamson: “You playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightening about shrinking so others won’t feel insecure around you. As you let your own light shine, you indirectly give others permission to do the same.” As audience members watch each of our performances, we hope that they will be inspired to tell their own story, and let their own light shine through.

In the original story of Oedipus the King, Queen Jocasta tries to go against the truth by killing her newborn child. That child escapes death and returns to Thebes as a curse. Split Theatre believes that the Queen is dead, and it's time to stop killing the parts of our selves that we hate. You are a whole human being. You're not a bad person. You matter.

Please visit our WOTS main page to find out more.