AstonRep's 'Wit' An Education In Death
By Melody Udell in Arts & Entertainment on May 21, 2014 9:00PM
AstonRep's production of "Wit" at the Raven Theatre. Photo by Emily Schwartz.
Wit, Margaret Edson’s 1999 Pulitzer-winning drama about an English professor battling stage IV ovarian cancer, is not a melodrama. Nor is it a study in pomp, an exercise in flashiness. And thanks to its quiet nature—reflecting that of its main character—this simply rendered, hard-hitting play is able to truly expose the emotions behind language, especially when those emotions concern life and death.
Dr. Vivian Bearing (played by a formative, steely Alexandra Bennett) is undergoing an experimental, eight-month regimen of chemotherapy, a process that leaves her both physically and—much more to her distress—mentally drained. A self-assured, tough-as-nails academic, Vivian isn't just the main character, she’s a guide who treats the audience to a sort of behind-the-scenes look at her life now that cancer is a part of it. She pauses often to make her own remarks about the scenes unfolding around her, whether she’s critiquing her oncologist’s vocabulary choices or pondering what will become of her mental acumen as she battles the symptoms that come along with chemo.
As Vivian takes us through her struggle, she remains in her hospital robe, tethered to an IV drip, even as she flashes back to important scenes from college or moments in her own classroom. Jerimiah Barr’s set, mainly consisting of a looming white board with medical notes and English lessons scribbled all over, remains constant in the background as desks, medical beds and wheelchairs are rearranged throughout each scene.
Vivian makes it clear that she “prefers research to humanity” and approaches cancer treatment the same way she’s approached everything in life. She’s bent on studying everything around her. (“Cancer treatment is educational. I am learning to suffer.”) But as much as Vivian wants to no doubt benefit from the self-awareness that comes with studying her time in the oncology ward, she lacks the insight to truly understand what’s happening around her. It’s a powerful moment when Vivian realizes that her strength lies in studying and expanding upon the metaphysical poetry of the British writer John Donne, and it’s not going to help her much as she faces an early death. But her relationship with the nurse resident, Susie (Alison Plott), is perhaps a way of atoning for a life spent under-appreciating others. Susie is sweet and, in Vivian’s words, not very bright, but she helps Vivian understand the importance of a relationship that goes beyond extrapolating 15th century text.
In just 90 minutes, Edson presents a fully realized character who doesn’t just ask questions about life and death—she answers them. And those answers comes in the form of a beautifully wrought, simply rendered play that is as thought-provoking as it is haunting.
The show runs through Sunday, June 7, AstonRep Theatre Company at Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark St., 773-828-9129 or online.