A Waiting Game

A Waiting Game is a verbatim play that foregrounds overlooked experiences of breast cancer beyond dominant “pink ribbon” narratives. Using an intersectional lens, it centres marginalised voices and personal testimonies often absent from mainstream discourse. The play explores cultural disparities through a South Asian perspective, LGBTQ+ identities, infertility, mental health, and addiction, as well as the impacts of medication. It also addresses cancer during COVID-19, male experiences of a feminised illness, relationship breakdown, financial hardship, and the older person’s experience of breast cancer. Performed by professional actors alongside participants with lived experience gathered over a four-year research project, the work powerfully reflects the complexity of living with cancer.