The Many Cri(s)es of Mia In memoriam, to Rodica

Developed as a character in 2011, Mia is part of the world’s first breast cancer trilogy. Miaⁱ is a personal and professional project because the play’s roots are subjective (I lost my mother to breast cancer thirty years ago), as well as objective (I hold a PhD in Medical Humanities with publications at the intersection between the arts and medicine). This article focuses on the many cri(s)es that Mia faces as a woman. She is in her early thirties when she is diagnosed with breast cancer. The treatment is aggressive and, consequently, not only does she lose one of her breasts (via mastectomy), but she cannot keep a pregnancy. We meet Mia outside of the white and somewhat terrifying hospital walls, that is, we meet her at home, and because of that, we have the illusion that she is in a protected space. We soon discover otherwise.