Bollocks To Cancer (C4)
STEVEN Liddell began the film by telling us about his cancer. "Fortunately, I had the tumour removed; unfortunately, it was attached to my left bollock at the time," he said.
I can't help feeling sorry for 19-year-old Steven. Not just because of the cancer but because inevitably his performance in this documentary will be judged against that of Jonny Kennedy in Patrick Collerton's previous, multi award-winning film The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off.
Whatever the Newcastle film-maker did next was going to be judged alongside that. By choosing to do another health story, he made things more difficult for himself. Jonny was a remarkable person whose story and outlook on life touched all those who watched the documentary about him. The key difference in this case, as Collerton has pointed out, is that it is a survivor's story. There was even a baby to make the happy ending complete after Steven discovered, while undergoing treatment, that his 17-year-old girlfriend Katie was pregnant.
Like many things in this engaging film, this caused some debate at home. "Maybe he was wanting to check out he was in working order after his operation," suggested his mother Linda.
The documentary was as much about treatment for testicular cancer as Steven coping with the illness. His narration provided plenty of amusing insights into a subject that many would rather not hear about.
The changes in Steven himself became apparent as he underwent three 21-day cycles of chemotherapy, spending six days in hospital for each cycle, in the Northern Centre for Cancer Treatment at Newcastle General Hospital.
It wasn't just feeling constantly sick. Not just losing his hair, although that did raise concerns. "People think I should be afraid of dying but my main fear is my hair is going to grow back ginger," he said. Not even having to stop smoking worried him, mainly because he simply dragged his drip trolley outside so he could light up.
What got on his nerves was the tedium of the chemo treatment, sitting all day hooked up to a drip. "Everyone is talking about the cancer and the chemo. For me, the real killer is the boredom," he said.
As you can tell, both Steven and the film's approach to a deadly serious situation was to respond with humour. "I'm 19, I don't do emotional journeys," he said at the start.
While his mother went on medication to deal with the stress, he went around saying: "Everyone's acting a bit tragic with me but I'm going to do it my way."
Just as inevitable as a loving mother's reaction was that Steven would be altered by an experience that left him "bald, knackered and puking".
Eventually, he admitted: "I don't want the cancer to make me a different person but it has - and I hate it." It was a rare outburst in his journey that ended with Steven, Katie and their new baby sitting happily side-by-side on the sofa. And Steven's hair wasn't growing back ginger.
The Dutiful Daughter, Courtyard Theatre, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
KE Zin is the dutiful daughter of the title and at the heart of this ambitious East-West collaboration between the Playhouse and the Sichuan People's Art Theatre in China.
This princess of the Isle of Joy obeys her royal father to the letter, until a mad sea captain with amnesia enters her life. She faces a choice between two fathers and two suitors, the lowly chef's son she's known since childhood or the husband chosen by her father.
Writer Charles Way uses a group of storytelling actors to frame the main narrative, which is inspired by Pericles. As this is one of Shakespeare's lesser-known plays, this won't be much help in following the plot.
Gail McIntyre's colourful production uses British and Chinese actors, speaking both English and Mandarin without any translation through surtitles. The only help provided in scenes in which Sichuan actors Gong Wei and Huang Liangyu speak totally in Mandarin are a few key phrases in English spoken as asides by other actors.
Overcome this sense of frustration - it's like being abroad and unable to speak the language - and you can enjoy an unusual collaboration rich in theatricality, if not clarity of plot.
Wei and Liangyu have a natural grace and energy that is wonderful to watch, even when you don't know what they're saying. Nicholas Camm makes a salty sea dog and Gary Simpson an authoritative king, even if I did keep thinking he'd strayed in from a production of The King And I.
* Runs until Saturday then tours to schools. Tickets: 0113-213 7700.
Steve Pratt
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