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VSU Presents: Wit

From Amazon:

Wit is that rare beast: art that engages both the heart and the mind. “It is not my intention to give away the plot,” Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., announces near the beginning of Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “but I think I die at the end. They’ve given me less than two hours.” For two hours, this famed Donne scholar takes center stage, interrupting her doctors, nurses, and students to explicate her own story, its metaphors and conceits. Recently diagnosed with late-stage ovarian cancer, she is being treated with an experimental drug cocktail administered in “eight cycles. Eight neat little strophes.” The chemo makes her feel worse than she ever thought possible; in fact, the treatment is making her sick, not the disease–an irony she says she’d appreciate in a Donne sonnet, if not so much in life.

I own a copy of Wit signed by author Margaret Edson, care of Ben on his meeting with her when she spoke at SGC. I had not yet read it until I hear that VSU would be taking on the production this year. I was absolutely enthralled once I picked it up. It’s such a beautiful depiction of her end.

Annie was amazing as Vivian. I wish she’d have shaved her head–from where we were sitting, the back of the bald cap just wasn’t quite cutting it–but I understand why she didn’t. She’s about to graduate and just can’t afford to with serious auditions coming.

I absolutely loved the set! It was one gorgeous back wall, with removable parts that served as different props in the play and they worked beautifully!

I had only two real negative things to say. Patrick put a little too much comedy into Dr. Posner. Instead of seeing the gradual change from the admiring ex-student, to the cold ‘fellow’ who cares nothing about his patients, we saw an almost abrupt change. Comedy is really Patrick’s area, and he just pushed those small comedic aspects a little too far.

The end scene was really off on timing. Instead of looking like absolute chaos, everything was stunted, leaving certain characters looking as though they were just staring off into space…waiting for their next cues.

That’s all I really have to say. Seeing this reminded me how important it is to read/experience something this deep more than once. There were a few things I more deeply understood and connected after watching the play. I even took a greater understanding of why it’s so verbose. I love it even more than I did before.