Allen’s ‘Better’ in annual Fillet of Solo fest
By Mary Houlihan Curtain Call/mhoulihan@suntimes.com July 20, 2011 4:58PM
Jenny Allen will perform her one-woman show, “I Got Sick Then I Got Better,” at Lifeline Theatre as part of the Fillet of Solo Festival.
Updated: October 20, 2011 12:26AM
When journalist Jenny Allen was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she knew from the beginning that she would write about it.
“I felt I couldn’t call myself a writer if I didn’t make use of this subject matter that had been handed to me,” Allen said. “As grim and shocking as it was, I knew I had to take notes.”
What Allen didn’t know at the time was that she would eventually work the material into a one-woman show, “I Got Sick Then I Got Better.” Under the direction of James Lapine and Darren Katz, the critically acclaimed piece debuted at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2009.
Allen’s humorously observant solo work about anger, hope and family makes its Chicago debut at Lifeline Theatre’s Fillet of Solo Festival. The annual event showcases local solo artists and, this year, several artists from outside the area.
Allen was diagnosed with Stage 2 ovarian cancer in 2005. She says she appreciates the “weird things that happened to me” during diagnosis, treatment and return to a “normal” life, such as “being pumped full of chemicals, having scans while drinking radioactive mixes and shopping for wigs,” Allen said, in a phone conversation from her Manhattan home. “But the really dark time came after chemo, when everyone expects you to go back to your life, but I was still so scared.”
Allen admits the show’s focus was all over the place at first, but a patient Lapine helped narrow the arc of the story. He advised her to focus on one aspect of her experience to fill the 80 minutes. Eventually, Allen’s family made its way into the show. She is married to Jules Feiffer, the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and playwright, and has two daughters. Halley, 26, is an actress, who recently made her Broadway debut in John Guare’s “The House of Blue Leaves,” and Julie, 16, is a high school student.
“James kept bringing me back to my family and how this experience affected them,” Allen, 55, recalled. “I was very aware that it was very difficult for my kids. Especially the youngest, who was 11-12 at the time. I wanted someone to take care of me; she wanted someone to take care of her.”
As for her husband, he “was initially surprised and concerned and upset and sympathetic.”
“But I think he really wanted to simply return to a normal family life,” Allen said. “And I wanted them all to think I was back to normal, but it was so difficult. It took a long time to bounce back.”
Allen had acted in high school and college. She also was in a comedy troupe, Serious Bizness, in New York. But acting was never a serious pursuit, and magazine journalism took hold. It wasn’t until the late ’90s when she and her family and several friends performed “Jules’s Blues,” a collection of Feiffer’s monologues, stories and scenes, that the desire returned.
“It was a really sweet evening and I loved being onstage again,” Allen said.
She went on to do stand-up with a group of friends: “Over the course of that, I realized I liked telling funny stories.”
With the cancer experience, Allen, who is now in remission, thought about putting her efforts into a book but realized that it didn’t suit her “new voice.”
“The particular voice I was speaking through lent itself to talking and humor and a certain dramatic quality that was best expressed onstage,” Allen said. “I spent a lot of years writing straightforward journalism. But I loved this new voice and wanted to expand it.”
Allen performs the show whenever she can and loves connecting with cancer patients. But she says it’s not just a show to be done in hospitals.
“James’ dictum was that this is a piece of theater, not a screed,” Allen said. “And it gets better over time. Darren and I continue to find ways to make it richer and more playful. Performing it has become a sort of heaven for me.”
† Jenny Allen performs “I Got Sick Then I Got Better” at 7 p.m. July 22, 28 and 29 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood. Tickets, $10. Call (773) 761-4477; lifelinetheatre.com.
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