Louise Page uses various political elements in her play. In woman's theatre the issues are more often based around the personal and domestic aspects of the home and family. Page addresses breast cancer in her play emphasising that it is a subject appropriate for the stage, this also demonstrates that these issues have just as much social and political significance to the audience as other issues approached by male playwrights. She uses theatre to raise awareness of breast cancer and the treatment and she constructed the play in a way that informs both male and female viewers.Page uses short episodic scenes to help maintain the audiences attention and to help them remain focused on the fa ...view middle of the document...
Scene three shows another side to the NHS, the woman in this scene is taking on the role of a nurse. Here she is behaving as though she cares about Sally and protecting her feelings by telling her she doesn't smell. This seems kind when you first read it but when you read the scene more carefully you see that the nurse is actually patronising Sally and treating her like she is a small child denying that Sally smells shows that the nurse feels that the smell even though a natural side effect of the infection is embarrassing and dirty.Men and women's attitude to other women and breasts is also a large concept in the play. In the first scene the man and woman both give their feelings about Sally's breast cancer phrases such as" Its only a bit of tissue?" Demonstrates the man's ignorance to the importance of breasts to women. The woman has a different attitude to the discussion she treats Sally's breast cancer as a taboo subject"Don't talk about it here" but at points she also demonstrates ignorance"All this fuss over a pound of flesh" this is shocking to the audience, as they would expect the woman to be more sympathetic to Sally's plight. The ultimate line of this scene shows Sally's desperation of the ignorance surrounding her"But it is me. And I am here." In scene nine the man represents Sally's boyfriend who you would expect to be more sympathetic to her dilemma but surprisingly he isn't. When she asks him to examine her breast the reaction of "why its your tit" shocks the audience. This line demonstrates that he only views her as a sexual object and that if there is no pleasure in it for him then he is unwilling to help Sally in any way.Scene four shows an old-fashioned approach that many women in the 1980's took to young girls and breasts. The woman demonstrates Sally's mother her attitude to Sally is disciplinary and she doesn't show compass...
