“Love Alone,” a new play written by Deborah Salem Smith, represents a world that wallows in guilt, grief, confusion, forgiveness and acceptance. Focusing on the repercussions of medical malpractice, or what the medical community calls ‘a bad outcome,’ the production reveals a tragedy’s aftermath and how it affects the deceased patient’s family and the doctor involved.
Running from Nov. 14 to Nov. 24 at Studio 115, “Love Alone” is a collaboration between the U’s Department of Theater and School of Medicine. For the partnership, the performers and medical professionals lent unique insights.
It is obvious intertwining science and art has affected the U’s medical world. For instance, the Division of Medical Ethics and Humanities hosts Evening Ethics readings and discussions, which are meant to bring together medical professionals from around the community and to address ethical problems in today’s healthcare system. One of these events included reading scenes from “Love Alone.”
“The biggest barrier to conversations about these difficult, crucial topics is finding the time and space to have them, especially for our busy medical professionals and students,” said Gretchen Case, an assistant professor in the Internal Medicine Department. “We are deeply grateful to the director and cast for coming to read excerpts. Some of the busiest people to see bits of the play and have conversation crucial to their everyday work.”
The collaboration not only benefited people in the medical field, it also allowed real-life doctors to critique the actors in the play, which resulted in realistic representations of medical professionals.
“Several doctors were kind enough to speak with our cast members about their experiences in medicine broadly, and specifically with being named in a medical malpractice lawsuit. Shantae Riley, who plays Dr. Becca Neal, benefited a great deal from their wisdom and experience,” said Sydney Cheek O’Donnell, head of theatre studies.
The opening moments of “Love Alone” set the grief-stricken tone. Dr. Becca Neal informs Helen and Clementine that Susan, Helen’s partner for more than 20 years and Clementine’s biological mother, passed away unexpectedly during a routine procedure. This news punches its way similarly through the hearts of Helen and Clementine, but each character’s unique reaction reveals the broad spectrum of coping mechanisms.
Heather Marie Maughan, a junior in the Actor Training Program, plays Helen, and her performance reflects devastating heartbreak without becoming overly cliché. In the first scene, Helen’s disbelief and shock is evident. The hospital’s decedent service representative, played by Jessica Surprenant, overwhelms both widow and daughter with instructions, information and stock sympathy expressions.
At the end of the scene, Helen is left confused and grasping a hospital bag full of her lover Susan’s possessions. Despite being able to accurately predict what is in the bag, she cannot bring herself to go through it, and the bag remains on stage for the majority of the play. This bag of belongings, along with Susan’s watch alarm punctuating the play, functions as an eerie reminder of the family’s loss.
Sophie Gassaway, a sophomore in the Actor Training Program, delivers a commanding performance as Clementine, Susan’s daughter. In the first scene, Clementine’s irritation and confusion is evident. She paces the room, and after her questions about what happened are ignored, she curses at the hospital and its doctors. Frustrated with the lack of information available, Clementine grows suspicious of the hospital. She then visits a lawyer to discuss her mother’s passing.
At first Helen is opposed to suing the hospital. However, once an investigation into the hospital’s mistake begins, she wants Dr. Neal and everyone else involved to own up to their actions. Clementine, happy with the information and quicker to forgive, doesn’t want to file a lawsuit.
Despite Helen and Susan’s long-time relationship, they were not allowed to legally marry, so Helen requires Clementine’s legal status as daughter in order to sue the hospital. In this, the play shows that love is love and explains that limiting love in any way is cruel.
Shantae Marie Riley, who plays Dr. Neil and is a sophomore in the Actor Training Program, was shaky at times. However, as she eased into the role, the audience felt unexpected pathos for a doctor under immense pressure from both her career and husband. Dr. Neal, worried about her culpability in Susan’s death, obsesses over each minute detail of the day and works overtime to try to repair her reputation. Riley’s character allows the audience to understand that not just the victim’s family is affected by medical errors.
“A quote that Deborah uses is one by Shaw, and it says, ‘We have not lost faith, but we have transferred it from God to the medical profession,’ and I think theater is an excellent way to show that transfer of faith and the real pressure we put on our doctors to fix and save us. I think the way Deborah does this in (Love Alone) is genius because it’s pretty raw and in your face. It allows people to empathize with doctors because it puts them back on a human level,” Gassaway said.