By the time she’d reached her mid-twenties, Jessie Bear was overweight and filled with self-loathing. Stepping on the bathroom scale was a painful experience. One day, after experiencing periods of thirst, fatigue and frequent urination she stepped on the scale once again... and found that she had inexplicably lost nine pounds.
Bear’s one-woman play Type What Now, a success at the New York International Fringe Festival and selected for the FringeFAVES, depicts what happened after she was told she had developed type 2 diabetes at the tender age of 26. This was acquired, everyone assumed, from her being overweight. But after an additional round of tests she was given another shock: the presence of antibodies in her blood revealed that she actually had type 1. Rarer than type 2 and more difficult to manage, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease that develops via an unpredictable process that is still fairly mysterious. People who acquire type 1 are usually children and often thin, so Jessie’s doctors stubbornly refused to correctly diagnose her condition despite overwhelming evidence, needlessly prolonging her torment.
The play’s staging is simple: Bear addresses the audience candidly and depicts key moments from her journey with the aid of a very talented co-star, Ann Flowers, who plays at least a dozen people including a typically smug doctor, a subway-riding busybody, Bear’s boyfriend, her sister, and many others.
As a performer Bear is direct and uninhibited without coming across as self-serving or exhibitionistic. This makes her exploration quite powerful since it depicts shame, self-consciousness, fear and other emotions people work very hard to keep hidden. She also wittily provides an education of sorts into the diabolical nature of type 1 diabetes, complete with cartoons projected on the wall behind her.
My six-year-old daughter has this disease, so my experience of this play was a little different. Certain sounds have become familiar: the spring-loaded “ka-litch” of the Accu-chek, the ever-startling dexcom alarms (Bear’s actually went off during the performance, necessitating a finger check and a dose of insulin). The play depicts her doing some googling after the illness presents itself, which is an inevitable ritual for anyone dealing with ill health. Her costar Flowers appears, this time as an annoyingly proactive type 1 YouTube star (patients and their families will know exactly who this is). Bear’s annoyance at the giggling positivity on display in the face of her own anger and self-pity was funny to some, hilarious to me because I’ve been at this same damn party for two years.
The most powerful scene is the instant Bear is first told that she actually might have type 1. For a moment she revels in “hope”, because, despite its additional travails, a diagnosis of type 1 would mean that she was not to blame for her illness. This is a very poignant moment, and here Bear stops to critique our blame-happy culture. Are type 2 diabetics, or anyone for that matter, simply undeserving of sympathy? Is our refusal to give sympathy to people we accuse of causing their own problems merely a foolish and desperate attempt to find order where none really exists?
Type What Now is moving, occasionally biting but never depressing. Although Bear frankly depicts her moments of anger and self-loathing, her performance is never cynical or misanthropic. Type What Now is ultimately a very positive piece. I hope it and its author enjoy a grand future.
