The D-Cup Diatribes

By
Melody Swink
(Melody Swink Website)

December 3 to 19, 2009

At
Gorilla Tango Theatre
(Gorilla Tango Theatre Website)

1919 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, Illinois60647
773.598.4549

Director: Mark Contorno
Playwright/Producer: Melody Swink
Lighting & Sound Design: Eric Price
Costume Design: Shiloh Aderhold
“The D-Cups Theme Song” and “Unfasten Me”
Written and Performed by Melody Swink
Public Relations: Noreen Heron & Associates, Inc.

“I Fought the Bra” used in parody from the original “I Fought the Law” by Bobby Fuller Four, Ace Records

All Characters Performed By
Sara Tode

Susan Weinrebe
December 3, 2009

Americans probably have as many words for “breasts” as Eskimos have for snow. In the one-woman show, The D-Cup Diatribes, Sara Tode plays seven female characters coming to grips with their mammary amplitude, or lack thereof. The series of hilarious and moving vignettes lays bare our cultural fascination with bosoms and attempts to put them in their proper perspective.

Unlike several other shows primarily aimed at women, which have targeted particular body zones or hormonal phases, The D-Cup Diatribes doesn’t try to desensitize or shock the audience with non-pc words. Each of the characters’ soliloquies uncovers a different viewpoint relative to the eighth character of the show: their breasts. Are they too large and impossible to fit, fleshy burdens to carry around? Are they too small to register on a pre-teen scale of acceptability, especially when compared to more developed peers? Are they the alluring attributes of a model? Or, are they being bidden goodbye just before a mastectomy?

Rousingly funny cheer type songs, “The D-Cups Theme Song” and “Unfasten Me”, written and performed by Melody Swink, set the mood for Sara Tode’s appearance. Dressed in basic black throughout, the type of white bra she wore on top of her shirt was as much a part of her characterization as each persona she took on. When she became the flouncy and irritable adolescent, who thought puberty would never happen for her, Tode nailed the teen angst perfectly: too prickly to eat, too pitiful not to love.

Melody Swink dedicated her show to breast cancer survivors, contributing a part of ticket sales to the Breast Cancer Network of Strength. Also, anyone who brings a friend to the show and brings a new bra of any size or style to donate to Deborah’s Place, will receive a free ticket. After all, as Ms. Swink quipped at the opening, this is to help women who “…need our support.”

Sara Tode in Melody Swink's
"THE D-CUP DIATRIBES"
Courtesy of Melody Swink

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For more information, contact Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower at zlokower@bestweb.net