Talk

Brian Lobel: 20 Years of Cancer in 20 Minutes

Thursday June 23, 14:35, Alternative Stage GNO

Standing in the center of the Alternative Stage at the Greek National Opera, Brian Lobel took a deep breath.

“Before I start any talk about cancer, I like to take a moment to acknowledge some very important people that often go unmentioned: those who have died, and those for whom we grieve,” he said. “I am sad their voices are no longer with us, to teach us about what we’re getting right, and what we’re getting wrong when we talk about cancer and what lies beyond.”

In his 20-minute speech, Lobel, a theater performer and professor at Rose Bruford College in London, talked about the experiences and the lessons he learned living with and beating cancer.

“This is my 20th cancer anniversary,” he said. “I was 20 years old when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and I'm now 40. I had lived for 7,646 days when I was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer, and it has been 7,782 days since I ‘survived’ the disease, or completed the treatment. I've officially lived longer after cancer than I have before it. This was a turning point.

"Lobel's performance was based on his works, which discuss cancer, as well as his book, Theatre & Cancer, which was published in 2019. Having structured his speech as a compilation of short excerpts, he presented the many and varied experiences of people who are or have been sick with cancer, himself included.

He started with his first play, BALL, which he wrote in 2003 on the subject of his hospitalization.

“What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I would be happy to remain weak,” he had written.

“Cancer is big, it is scary, and in just two syllables, can make a person shut down, shut off, and discharge. Understanding cancer itself is one of the biggest burdens of cancer because it means so many things, to so many people, in so many ways—those who have died and who we now mourn,” he said.

He then referred to a New York Times article with the title “Imagine life after cancer,” a collection of photographs that readers sent to the newspaper. Most of the photographs featured images of travelling and sightseeing, but one comment made an emphatic reference to the harsh reality and side effects in a reader's sex life after her cancer treatment.

When Lobel read the comment, he realized that the return to normality should not be seen as a normal and expected outcome of treatment.

So in October 2021, he and his partner, Joon Lynn Goh, founded Sex With Cancer, the first sex toy shop for people who are sick or have been cured of cancer.

Closing his speech, Lobel jokingly said that he keeps on adding chapters to his first play, but now faces his feelings with greater maturity.