Wit

Wit
1999 Faber and Faber edition
Written by	Margaret Edson
Characters	Vivian Bearing Harvey Kelekian Jason Posner Susie Monahan E.M. Ashford Mr Bearing Laboratory technicians Dr Bearing's Students
Date premiered	1995
Place premiered	South Coast Repertory Costa Mesa, California
Original language	English
IOBDB profile

Wit is the first play written by American playwright Margaret Edson. Edson used her work experience in a hospital as part of the inspiration for her play.^[1][2] Wit received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory, Costa Mesa, California, in 1995.^[3] Long Wharf Theater in New Haven, Connecticut subsequently staged the play in November 1997, with Kathleen Chalfant in the lead role.^[4][5] The play received its first New York City production in September 1998, at the MCC Theater, with Chalfant reprising her lead performance as Vivian Bearing.^[1] An excerpt from the play was published in the New York Times in September 1998.^[6] Chalfant received strong praise for her performance. She also incorporated her own life experience into her work on the play, including the final illness and death of her brother Alan Palmer from cancer.^[7] The play moved to the Union Square Theater in December 1998, after its successful initial run in New York City.^[8]

Wit won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.^[9] The play also received the "Best New Play" award for 1999 from the New York Drama Critics' Circle.^[10] Because the play did not receive a production at a Broadway theatre, Wit was not eligible for the Tony Awards.^[11] Chalfant received an award from the Village Voice Obies for her performance. In 2001, the play was adapted into a cable television film with Emma Thompson as Vivian Bearing.

Elizabeth Klaver has discussed in detail the philosophical issues of "mind vs body" in the context of Wit.^[12]

Note: On the cover of the published book of the play, the use of a semicolon in place of the letter i gives W;t as one representation of the play's title. In the context of the play, the semicolon refers to the recurring theme of the use of a semicolon versus a comma in one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. Both Wit and W;t have been used in various articles on the play for the title. For convenience, the title of this article here is given as the conventional spelling of Wit, without the use of punctuation in the middle of the word.

Characters

• Vivian Bearing, PhD – 50 years old, a professor of seventeenth-century poetry at the university, diagnosed with stage IV, metastatic ovarian cancer
• Harvey Kelekian, MD – 50 years old, chief of medical oncology at the University Hospital
• Jason Posner, MD – 28 years old, a clinical fellow at the Medical Oncology Branch, former student in Vivian's class
• Susie Monahan, RN, BSN - 28 years old, Vivian's primary nurse in the cancer in-patient unit
• E.M. Ashford, DPhil – 80 years old, professor emerita of English literature, Vivian's former professor in college
• Mr Bearing, Vivian's father
• Laboratory technicians
• Students of Dr Bearing's class

Synopsis

Wit is performed as a single continuous act, without intermission.

The play is structured as the last hours of Dr Vivian Bearing, a university professor of English, who is dying of ovarian cancer. She recalls the initial diagnosis of Stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer from her oncologist, Dr Harvey Kelekian. Dr Kelekian then proposes an experimental chemotherapeutic treatment regimen consisting of eight rounds at full dosage. Vivian agrees to the treatment.

Over the course of the play, Bearing assesses her own life through the intricacies of the English language, especially the use of wit and the metaphysical poetry of John Donne. Throughout the play, Vivian recites John Donne's Holy Sonnet X whilst reflecting upon her condition. In addition to her understanding of poetry, she has a reputation for her difficult classes and demanding manner. Vivian has spent most of her life preferring scholarship to humanity. She is unmarried and without children, her parents are deceased, and she has no third-party person to contact.

Vivian recalls undergoing tests by various medical technicians and being the subject of grand rounds. She remembers the first time that she acquired a love of books from her father, Mr Bearing. She also flashes back to her experiences as a student of Dr EM Ashford, an expert on John Donne.

Bearing later finds herself under the care of Dr Jason Posner, a young doctor who took her Donne class at university. At the hospital, Vivian recognises that doctors are more interested in her for their research, and recognises a parallel to her approach in study and teaching. She gradually realises that she would much prefer kindness and compassion to intellect. Susie Monahan, a nurse at the medical centre, offers Vivian comfort, and mentions to her the option of exercising among medical emergency options either code blue or "do not resuscitate" (DNR), in case of a severe decline in her condition. Vivian decides to mark the DNR option.

Eventually, Vivian reaches the end stage in extreme pain. Dr Ashford, in town for her great-grandson's birthday, visits the hospital after learning of Vivian's cancer. She comforts Vivian and offers to read to her the Donne sonnet, but Vivian refuses. Instead, Dr Ashford reads from Margaret Wise Brown's The Runaway Bunny, which she had bought for her great-grandson. Dr Ashford turns out to be the only visitor that Vivian receives. Vivian then flatlines. Jason suddenly discovers this, tries to resuscitate Vivian, and calls in a medical team to administer CPR to her as he values her as "research." Susie tries to stop him and to point out the DNR instruction. Jason eventually realises his mistake, and calls for the CPR team to stop, at which the team remarks on Jason's mistake in not noticing the order. The play ends as Vivian, unclothed after her death, walks from her hospital bed "toward a little light."

References

External links

• Wit (MCC Theater) at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Wit (Union Square Theatre) at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Wendy Guida, "The Village Voice Obies" (18 May 1999). TalkinBroadway.org web page, Off Broadway article