Chronic The Musical
Participation options: In-person and virtual
Included in the registration cost? Yes
Join us on Wednesday, August 2 at 8:00 pm IST (Irish Standard Time) in the ballroom to watch ‘Chronic: The Musical’. The show lasts one hour without an interval, and all attendees are welcome. Tickets are not required.
Chronic is a ‘hysterical’ one-woman reflection on a journey that navigates an invisible chronic illness, exploring the unconscious medical bias that was experienced along the way. It questions how far we’ve really come since the Freudian days of medical misogyny. Through music and humor, we follow Cat’s journey from her initial symptoms to an acceptance of the disease, experiencing the challenges she faces, not only from her doctors but mentally and physically.
Cat shares some of her experience with writing and performing Chronic below:
Chronic is a true story about my lived experiences as a cisgendered woman. I wish to reference a passage from the introduction to Gabrielle Jackson’s ‘Pain and Prejudice,’ a book about unconscious bias in the medical industry against women. She eloquently justifies her choice of language surrounding sex and gender and I wish to share this with you as it reflects how I have written Chronic.
“There are many people who have female sex organs, who menstruate, who suffer from endometriosis, adenomyosis, and many other conditions … who are not women, or do not identify as women.”
“These conditions are under-researched, under-funded, and largely unacknowledged because they solely or predominantly affect women. The vast majority of people affected are women. Sadly, most research still fails to distinguish between sex and gender, which makes it all the more difficult for me to draw out conclusions beyond cisgender women.”
“Unfortunately, the research [into trans, intersex, and gender non-binary people’s experiences of medicine] is still scarce but I did see signs of hope for the future … “
“However, because of the lack of research and the historical treatment of women that has influenced modern medical science and practice, much of this book is about the experiences of cisgendered women, and I frequently use the term ‘women’ to reflect that.”
Trigger warning:
*Suitable for those over the age of 15, contains swearing with a mention of abortion, depression, and self-harm.
