Drama Queens, a five-star arts journal focusing on female artists

Blood/Sugar written and performed by Diana Wyenn

Planet Connections Theatre Festivity

Reviewed by Waeza Jagirdar

Blood/Sugar, based on a true story, written and performed by Diana Wyenn, and shares with us the tale of Type I Diabetes. Considering the fact that no one in her family ever had diabetes, nor has she ever met anyone who ever did, she has to face the harsh truth and accepting the reality alone per se.

Throughout this play, we discover the not-so-sweet facts about Diabetes and how it’s not seen as one of the important diseases in the United States – but should be. Although, we spend about 700 billion dollars every year for diabetes, majority of Congress believe diabetes came from obesity and that it’s a problem that we’ve created among ourselves. However, that isn’t true. Among the people in the U.S that have diabetes, more than 15% have it through other means. Many of the people, just like Wyenn, may have diabetes but not know about it due to the fact that 9 out of 10 don’t know they have pre-diabetes. It’s an alarming situation for everyone and the statistics aren’t helping the case. Type I Diabetes is rarer than the Type II variety. Wyenn is one of those rare people. She has an insulin pump around her hips and this helps her maintain a stable amount of insulin to go through. Nonetheless, she still has to deal with the problem of putting in the right amount of insulin, not too much or not too less because she could end up killing herself. Seriously.

Overall, this informative play about Diabetes brought great awareness to the circumstances. Through Wyenn’s fine acting and expert writing, I feel as though I’ve learned a tremendous amount. I will look at my own afflicted family members now in a new light.

What better compliment can I give except I think I need to get checked.