Theater artist Siobhan O’Loughlin broke her hand and fingers in a bad bike accident in 2014. The doctor told the New York–based artist to wrap up her giant cast in a plastic bag when showering, but O’Loughlin was anxious about doing that “because I’m an anxious person,” she said recently.
So she thought to take baths instead. A major problem presented itself: She didn’t have a bathtub.
Out of desperation, she called up friends to ask if she could use their facilities. They graciously accepted, and soon she was bathing in every borough in New York City. Her friends offered more than just their tubs. Some bought her wine and chocolates. Some made her dinner. Some just cleaned up the bathroom real nice. “They gave me so much kindness and generosity,” she said. “They helped me heal.”
Her “literally immersive” one-woman show, Broken Bone Bathtub, emerged from this experience. O’Loughlin originally intended the performance to be a 30-minute monologue composed largely of her journal entries from the time of the accident. But during the 2015 premiere in an Airbnb in Tokyo, Japan, she realized it needed to be much more interactive.
