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Between baptisms and near drownings, the swimmer navigates dangerous waters. A daughter's first bra; a black taffeta dress; lethal cocktails; a Latin lover. And cancer. A sensuous tale of survival.
Written, produced and performed by Anne Dimock
2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival
What’s a 52-year old woman doing on stage in her bathing suit?
Writer and playwright Anne Dimock illuminates the surprisingly rich world of cancer in a new solo show at the 2004 Minnesota Fringe Festival. Drawing upon her own experience with breast cancer, Ms. Dimock tells an engaging story of survival that will resonate with cancer patients, survivors, their loved ones, and anyone else who wonders how to get from fear to peace. The Swimmer mines a single episode of illness for all possible meaning and celebrates the small and large events that make up the cancer experience: a daughter’s first bra, a special black dress, a lethal cocktail, a dangerous tango, and swimming.
This show is a tiny marvel
Small stage, no fancy tricks. Just a woman standing alone on stage with the occasional costume change. But it was compelling stuff. The overall story may be about surviving breast cancer, but it is the way in which Anne Dimock chooses to approach it - in stories about buying her daughter's first bra just days before her own first operation, an iconic dress and the personal milestones it came to mark, and likening her chemotherapy drugs to a seductive but dangerous Latin lover - that makes the story both accessible, truly memorable, and dare I say it, beautiful. Highly recommended. For more details visit my blog on this site as Single White Fringe Geek with the League of Extraordinary Fringers or the section "In My Humble Opinion" on my website www.matthewaeverett.com
—Matthew Everett (Posted on Aug. 12, 2004)
“Wonderful! This show is for everyone! Two thumbs up!”
- Jane Van Deusen Morrison, Oncology Clinic Nurse Specialist,North Memorial Hospital
Running length: 55-60 minutes with no intermission
Capable of being expanded into a longer work, or excerpted for a 10-15 minute selection
Cast:
1 Woman
Character:
The Swimmer – adult female between ages of 35-50
Set:
No special requirements; two chairs or a bench
Synopsis:
Between baptisms and near drownings, The Swimmer navigates dangerous waters. A diagnosis of cancer brings her to the edge of a pool. Will she jump in or not? The cold splash of mortality wakes her up to a pool of possibilities. She finds a future in a daughter's first bra; a black taffeta dress; lethal cocktails; angelic nurses; and a Latin lover. A sensuous tale of death, survival and breaststroke.
Sample Scene:
Hair Loss
''Hairless after chemo, I looked like a slippery eel, a slick seal. Swimmers in competition shave their bodies to lose friction and resistance to gain a fraction of a second. I like the idea of losing friction and resistance, to give yourself over to an experience for the sake of a fraction of a second. Chemo was like that – mortification of the body to gain time.
In college, the competitive swimmers were 18-21 year old boys. Some approached the hairy darkness of their fathers, and when wet, the hair on their legs, arms, backs and chest slicked against their bodies in black flows and undulations. Others were grown-up tadpoles, young and pre-pubescent. I thought all of them were handsome. Before a meet they shaved everywhere and the contrast was stark and beautiful. They looked less brutish without hair, younger and more innocent.
When I lost my everywhere hair, I thought of those swimmers. I too had that youthful baby look of hairlessness, but without head hair I also looked like an alien. The loss of pubic and leg hair was a blessing and I wished it would never grow back. It did, but not before I enjoyed several months of the only clear bikini line I ever had since I was 12. What luck that this occurred during winter in Minnesota. On those few days when I ventured forth in the pool, I had no hair anywhere, and I thought of those beautiful swimmer boys."
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