One-Woman Play Explores a Mother's Death

Brut America

Her mom died during a plastic surgery procedure. Now, Susan Lieu is trying to avenge her death on stage with her one-woman play.

Transcript

00:00That morning, she went in for plastic surgery.

00:02Two hours into the operation, she lost oxygen to her brain.

00:06♪♪

00:15♪♪

00:25I can't believe you, Ma!

00:26You die from a tummy tuck,

00:28and then you're telling me what I can and can't eat?

00:31I steal your mom, okay?

00:33I see you when you smoke all the pot,

00:35and you get all the high,

00:37and then you eat the whole bag potato chip,

00:39then you all sad, sad, you cannot wear bikini!

00:42It's been a forcing function for me to, like, interview my family

00:46and retrace my mom's last day

00:48and read all these legal depositions

00:49and really figure out what was happening,

00:51because no one in my family ever wanted to talk about it.

00:53And I was just like, no more.

00:55Like, I'm an adult now,

00:57and I need to have closure on this.

01:00And so I go, I look for the doctor,

01:03I reach out to his family,

01:06and then I produce this show.

01:09♪♪

01:20My godmother used to say that no one would ever love me

01:23if I wasn't a size zero, max size two.

01:26Well, guess what?

01:28I'm a size eight, and I'm married up because he's Korean!

01:32The gold standard for Asian hotness.

01:37It's brought me to this really beautiful place,

01:40because now it's like, I forgive the doctor and his family.

01:44I'm not mad.

01:47I'm not mad at my mom for leaving me

01:49and dying what I thought was, like, a senseless death, right?

01:52It was elective cosmetic surgery.

01:54It wasn't something that...

01:55And that's why, like, I never wanted to share this,

01:57was because it wasn't, like, a good way to die.

02:00It was something that she had some agency in.

02:03♪♪

02:05I come from a family of hustlers,

02:08spirit channelers, and survivors,

02:10and I'm not going to let one negligent man

02:13control my destiny or my mother's story.

02:17I'm 140 pounds.

02:20She was 140 pounds.

02:23And so much more.

02:25♪♪

02:26-♪♪

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