Tonight's picture was taken on July 13th of 2009. It was Brandon's 19th birthday and we were celebrating it in the clinic. Brandon was Mattie's big buddy and as you can see in this photo Mattie was with Brandon, clipping his fingers together with his alligator clips, and on the other side of Brandon was Jocelyn! It is hard to believe that two wonderful people in this photo are gone. Taken by osteosarcoma.
Quote of the day: Without music life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
This week Peter and I will be celebrating our wedding anniversary. In honor of that occasion, I got tickets today for us to see the musical, Side Show. Musicals are something we both enjoy, after all we met each other singing in college. We both sung in our College's choir for four years.
Side Show originally was performed on Broadway in 1997, and basically was a flop. People either loved it or hated it, and after 91 performances, the show was CLOSED. Now seventeen years later, the show has been significantly revamped, new songs have been added, and apparently the content of the show has been changed. The focus of the show has gone from a backstage circus to more of a biography of the main characters within the play.
This musical is heart wrenching. In fact, I couldn't make it through most songs without a tissue. It follows the life story of conjoint twins who were born in England in 1908. They were the first twins in England to be born joint at the spine and therefore it was unclear as to the safety of separating them surgically. Their mother was a barmaid and single and she gave them up for adoption. Unfortunately their lives only became more complicated and tragic. Their guardians exploited them and would allow people to pay money to see and touch them because of their deformities. Eventually these guardians made them perform as a side show in a circus (by this point they moved to the U.S.), where they would sing and dance. When they weren't singing and dancing, they were working. They had no freedoms and literally there was a court case in the United States where they had to fight to become independent citizens, to remove all custody and rights from their abusive guardian.
Their upbringing and circus career were fascinating in and of itself, but it was the psychological nature of this play that captures the audience's heart strings. Literally almost every woman around me was CRYING! I haven't been to a play like this in YEARS!!! The twins shared with the audience their dreams and their hopes for a future.... to be like every one else!!! Something we all can relate to! They revealed how different they are as people, despite being twins! They also let us understand their frustrations with being physically attached to the other twin 24 hours a day. Yet even when one of them got mad and angry at the other at times, neither of them could imagine having a surgical procedure to become separated from the other. The whole notion frightened them as the song, "I will never leave you" depicts so poignantly! I will never leave you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tStUnyvr8gQ
The play explores love, differences, loyalty, trust, betrayal, and of course loss. These women really only wanted to be able to live an independent and every day life in which they could fall in love, marry, and work. But how does a man marry a conjoint twin? I do not think we still have answer to such a question and it is now 2014! The twins were deemed "freaks" all their lives, and they died that way. To me this play was also a social commentary on the evolution and perspective of tolerance in society. In the earlier 1900's, those with disabilities and deformities were classified as "freaks" to be put on display. Fortunately we have come a long way from that point in our history, where we have much more tolerance and understanding for physical disabilities. Of course, however, I will always remember people staring at Mattie when we took him out in public when he was battling cancer. I will never forget the rudeness and glares at his bald head and surgical scars, so I can't even imagine what kind of ridicule a conjoint twin suffered in the earlier 1900's.
I am saddened to say that Side Show is leaving DC tonight! Otherwise I would say it is a MUST see! It has to be one of my favorite musicals I have seen in a long time! The music was moving and memorable and for once their was a plot, and a touching story line! We did not need to be dazzled with pyrotechnics and props........... all we needed was music and a story! Wow go figure!
Info about Side Show:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/at-kennedy-center-side-show-takes-another-turn-around-the-midway/2014/06/05/b87d9f54-e83a-11e3-a70e-ea1863229397_story.html
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