Margaret stage 4 pancreatic cancer and playing the violin makes her happy. She plays it well, even though she is a shadow of the player she once was. But, when her son hears about a clinical trial that could cure her, Margaret finds that she will no longer be living on her own terms...
Shaking Hands is a moving short film that challenges conventional approaches to end-of-life care. Current Western approaches to medicine encourage people to chase lottery-ticket chances of recovery, no matter the more-likely human cost. Margaret refuses to allow this to happen to her. Indeed, she would rather make the most of her time left, even if it means going against her son’s wishes…
This piece originally began as a short script, for which I was named as Theatr Clwyd's Daniel Owen Young Writer of the Year 2015. Since then, working with producer Dermot O'Dempsey, the piece has developed into an animation.
