Joined at the Head is the story of Maggie, a successful fiction writer, who receives an invitation to the home of her former college flame, Jim. Maggie arrives for a weekend reunion to find that his wife, Maggy, is battling cancer. The unique friendship that develops between the three is reflected in the unusual style of the show - narrated as it is written by the novelist, but interrupted by characters that she can't control who step off the page and onto the stage.

Forced to struggle with the reality of death, and their human reluctance to accept mortality, Maggie and the other characters discover new joy in old friendships, strength in the vulnerability of self-revelation, and comfort in each other's company.

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People don't talk about cancer. Perhaps that is better stated: people don't talk about disease or dying. I'd like to give you fiar warning that this play may make you uncomfortable if you have had an experience with cancer. And I'll follow up with a suggestion: maybe that's okay, maybe that's what the play should do. Sometimes we need tugs at our hearts to make us consider unresolved issues in our lives. Cancer changes people's lives forever, but seldom do people talk about it. Because people are embarrassed, hurting, or scared, the issues with which people grapple when dealing with cancer become internalized and sometimes never reach closure. One person I spoke with shared his fear of getting sick again, even though he has been in remission for about ten years: "Whenever I get a cold or anything, I immediately think, 'Could it be cancer again?' It's crazy, but that's my constant fear."

Since Messiah College is a Christian community, the people I interviewed have dealt with cancer from their Christian perspective; they have found their strength in the Almighty and wheir peace in the Wonderful Counselor, thought the journewy has been anything but easy. Their stories gave me courage to face the struggles that I anticipate in my life, for certainly no one breezes through life without some serious difficulty.

But Butterfield's Joined at the Head is not immediately about cancer. Much like Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit, this play holds cancer as a gateway to larger questions of mortality; in Wit, these questions are explicitly metaphysical, while Joined and the Head poses much more quotidian concerns. Both plays question the ways in which post-modern women spend thier time and expose the sad results of choosing to live without strong interpersonal relationships.

Another issue that Joined at the Head shares with Edson's Wit concerns the role of comedy in dealing with something as tragic as cancer. Does comedy have any place? I challenge you to see the play from Maggie's, Butterfield's and my perspective and let comedy and tragedy intermingle in drama as they do in life. Reach out to gain someone else's perspective on your situation, perhaps even another's perspective on yourself. --- Dani

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