MADAME OVARY
Sherman Theatre, Cardiff
Thurs 5 Mar
Written and performed by Rosa Hesmondhalgh, whose auntie you may know as Corrie’s Hayley Cropper, Madame Ovary combines humour with intense sadness in a brave, real-life tale of being diagnosed with ovarian cancer at the age of 23. Seeking to raise awareness of this strain of cancer in young women, Hesmondhalgh shares her own personal story of symptom diagnosis, hospital admissions, treatments, near-death experiences and recovery uses text projection, poetry and dance.
Inspired by a blog written throughout Hesmondhalgh’s cancer, the show takes the form of a monologue, which begins in January 2018. Like many others her age, she’s writing her New Year’s resolutions: do yoga, create art and stop dating idiots. But a bloated belly has been bothering her for a while, and she cancels a second date for a day of medical tests. Her typically millennial worries are obliterated when faced with the Big C. Her resolutions are replaced by a single, all-important one: survive the year. This poignant, funny one-woman play explores the struggle of being confronted with your own mortality when your life has barely begun.
Tickets: £8-£16. Info: 029 2064 6900 / www.shermantheatre.co.uk (NGr)