Pulling Apart Pulitzer Prize-Winning Dramas

Description Albee's three-person show centers on one woman at three ages in her life. A is the 92-year-old version. B is the 52-year-old version. C is the 26-year-old version. Making a brief appearance in Act Two is her son who has abandoned her in his youth. The play is set in A's bedroom wherein B takes care of her. A reminisces while B encourages and C confronts. A shares stories of her failed relationships with her husband, "the penguin," and her son, "The Boy". C states that she will not turn into A. Act 1 ends with A having a stroke. Spoiler, I know. Act 2 calls for a mannequin to take A's place in the bed. This gives permission for A to speak with A and B more clearly. A and B contextualize their life to C so that C can understand why A and B are the way they are. It's a cautionary, yet fated tale. The play is heavily autobiographical wherein the role of "The Boy" who doesn't speak in the play portrays Albee. Althoug...

Description First, can we all just take a moment to applaud Margaret Edson for writing this as her FIRST PLAY. Come on! What a feat. But what is it about? According to Playbill.com Wit is about "[a]  brilliant and brutally demanding professor — a specialist in the life-and-death themes of John Donne's Holy Sonnets — [who] now finds herself the subject of research designed to try to save her life."  Vivian Bearing, the aforementioned professor, begins the play almost like Tom Wingfield from The Glass Menagerie . She sets the humorous and hard tone from the start. Edson lets Vivian narrate her story from childhood flashbacks to her final moments of living. Some important characters in the small cast include Dr. Kelekian, her doctor who is almost Vivian's comrade. Jason, one of her former students, is a med student who is completing his clinicals. He has been assigned to help treat Vivian. The other two most important characters include Susie, the nurse who truly ...