An Afternoon With Casey

By Uy Pham

The houselights went dark. The chattering died down as my friends and I stared at the black stage, not quite sure what to expect. We, along with most of Theatre Temp, had come down to see this matinee performance of “Casey and the Octopus.” We had been told that the actor, Casey Wright, would share his life story with us, and that it was going to be the most heartwarming presentation we had seen in a long time. As it turned out, the show was exactly that, and much more.

     Then the stage turned bright again, and there Casey was. He was small, smaller than we could have imagined, and yet his presence seemed to fill the entire studio. Even with everything we’d heard about him, meeting Casey in person still hit us in a way we never could have prepared for. To be honest, I felt a little uneasy. It was strange seeing someone so different from us.

     However, it did not take long for that feeling to dissipate. Over the next hour, we followed Casey as he led us through his incredible journey, accompanied by images shown onstage by a projector. We saw him as a baby, back when things were still “normal.” We listened as Casey retold the moment doctors discovered what he called “the Octopus,” a malignant tumour in his brain. We followed him through everything that came after: the surgeries, the long months in the hospital, all the things he did not get to do as a young boy. 

     But it wasn’t just the things that he didn’t get to do. Casey also talked about the things he did: fundraising, living on a ranch, acting in a TV show, etc. When he showed us a video message sent to him by Jason Momoa, we could barely believe our eyes. Casey, despite his challenges, has lived and is living a much more meaningful life than many of us. I suppose he put it better than anyone else. “I’m the luckiest guy alive!” he said at the end of the show. 

When the lights went out at the end of the performance, it took me some time to process what I’d just seen, so much so that I almost forgot to join the applause erupting in the studio. Casey stayed on stage for a while to answer questions from the audience. I wanted to thank him for what he did and is continuing to do, but I wasn’t able to. Well, I guess I finally have the chance to do it here. Thank you, Casey, for making my day better with your inspiration.

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