Wit

Author: Michael Nevadomski

This past weekend saw the amateur performance of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, "Wit" (alternately spelled "W:t"). Based on the author's own hospital experiences, "Wit" explores the isolating effects of academia through the last months of the main character, Dr. Vivian Bearing (Lizzie Gordon '09), an English professor specializing in the so-called "Holy Sonnets" of John Donne. Diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer, Vivian undergoes experimental chemotherapy treatments that render her mere "research" to her attending physicians, which in turn cause her to reflect on her experiences with students and the way that her own research (though metaphysical in nature and powerful in subject) has isolated her from humanity.

"Edson offers no cautionary morals, and no carpe diem speeches," wrote Heather Zimmerman, a theatrical reviewer for Metroactive, an entertainment newspaper based in San Jose, Calif. "At its most basic, 'Wit' is a slice of life and death, and doesn't pretend to offer meaning beyond the human experience it portrays." Touching on the grand themes of life and death and literature - why we live and what we live for - "Wit" should touch us as subtly as the difference between the semicolon and the comma in "Holy Sonnet X" that it preoccupies itself with through much of the poem.

Much of that subtlety, however, is lost in Andy Gustafson's '09 production. Though Gustafson and Gordon boasted a sophisticated understanding of the play itself in their insightful remarks in an otherwise flippant program, they struggled to convey this onstage. "Wit" relies on a conscious removal of the proverbial "fourth wall," through which Vivian builds a rapport with the audience in a series of long, conversational monologues. But a rattling hospital gurney and a rolling IV prop obscure Gordon's already weak projection, and result in large chunks of the script going unheard. Regrettable also were numerous pauses that led some audience members to whisper, suspecting forgotten or misremembered lines.

Though Vivian calls for an actor that represents the soul of cold and awkward academia, Gordon's portrayal is hardly two-dimensional. She fails to project the redeeming qualities that render Vivian interesting and sympathetic, stressing Vivian's self-obsession and belief that being smart "would take care of it." Consequently, the final proclamation that "I'm a teacher"- a statement that Gordon and Gustafson suggest reflects "She is meant to be a teacher to us all"- falls flat, and her final exit "toward a little light" seems less the redemptive peace of a final passing, and more the exit of a petulant child sent to bed.

Kevin Thorsen '11, who portrays Vivian's former student-turned-doctor Jason Posner, manages to give us well-timed comic action that, for all its cartoonishness, relieves us of some of the play's more awkward moments. Yet Thorsen's boyish portrayal of Jason backfires often, and leaves us less certain of his character's dedication and passion for research, and more convinced of his inherent solipsism and inner toolishness. Ana Guerrero Ramos '09 manages to convey Vivian's demanding mentor, E.M. Ashford, with an ease and command that belies her first stage outing; her scene with "The Runaway Bunny" and its "little allegory of the soul" was comic, heartfelt and commendable in its tenderness. But it was the nurse, Susie (Jessica Spar '11), that managed to humanize the play and save it from pontificating on the coldness of the medical establishment. Spar gives a sympathetic and understanding performance of the healthcare professionals closest to the patients.

I will be the first to recognize and commend the enthusiasm, labor and initiative that went into staging an independent production. But clattering sets, lost lines - even the unnecessary references to "Furby collections" in the program - point to an overall lack of seriousness that does injustice not only to Edson's play, but belies the labor-intensive craft of acting.