Wit -- by Margaret Edson (1999)

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 cares for Vivian in her darkest hours and Dr. Ashford who sparked Vivian's devotion to studying Donne's sonnets as a scholar.

The play was first performed Off-Broadway in 1999 and was later revived on Broadway in 2011-2012 with Cynthia Nixon at the helm. View clips of that production here.

A movie version of the play was made for HBO and starred Emma Thompson. I haven't seen it, but I have a hard time envisioning the text being matched or elevated through the medium of television or cinema.

Candid Reactions

• Okay, Edson. Vivian Bearing. Seriously? Vivi - Life. Bearing. Oh, the inherent irony that Vivian Bearing is facing death. 
• I always love when playwrights are insistent on lighting, music, and/or scenery. I love when playwrights take consideration to the meaning behind set changes. Exquisite attention to the development of theme. 
• Vivian's humor from the start is a relief for the audience. 
• The double entendre of "curtains" at the end of the first monologue is foreboding. 
• From the start, Edson makes the audience member pay attention to the parallelism of the dialogue. The "curtains" double-meaning by Vivian is quickly followed by the double-meaning of the word "insidious" by Dr. K. Well-played, Edson. 
• Vivian's verbalized thought process is akin to Strange Interlude. 
• The semicolon is addressed. Boy, is it ever!
• Vivian's recollection of seeing a lawn covered with relaxing college age students right after she emphasizes how only "a comma" separates humans from life and death reminds me of Seize the Day by Saul Bellow when the protagonist views whole flocks of city-goers. 
• Vivian describes herself best: "I am, in short, a force" (17). 
• Thanks, Edson, for defining wit for us. 
• Such dry humor. Gotta connect with Vivian when she sarcastically says, "Yes, that's all there is to my life history" (24). Doctors ask for a full understanding of your life when you need only to give them a description of what information is pertinent to the problem at hand. 
• Vivian is hilarious. Her whole encounter with Jason is too much!
• Right when we get laughing, Edson includes the line, "I am learning to suffer" (31) and -- BOOM -- we are left to contemplate a human truth. This line would hold far less impact if it had not been said right after a string of jokes. 
• Ah, the great reversal. Now Vivian is the subject being studied. Her studying of Donne's sonnets provide rich parallels now. 
• How stunning it is when Donne's poem is projected upon Vivian's body. Edson again proves her masterful attention to her stage directions. 
• The parallels continue as she complains about how the research would be about her ovaries and not herself. 
• Bold statement to say that cancer is "awesome" (56). 
• Jason's so aloof. Argh. 
• Vivian's growing desire for human contact and interaction is heartbreaking to watch. 
• Ah, the parallels taste so sweet. We can distinguish a parallel between Vivian's hiding behind her smarts and Donne's hiding behind his wit. 
• The nurse's discussion with Vivian about being coded DNR is pretty heavy. She provides Vivian with perspective: Your doctors will always want you to choose to be resuscitated so that they can further their research, but is the life of perpetual agony what you want for yourself?
• I call this Vivian's Pre-Death War Cry. 
• Gosh, some of these metaphors are frightening. 
• Jason posits, "Research is just trying to quantify the complications of the puzzle" (77). 
• The bunny motif is sometimes strange.  

Top Two Aspects/Reasons for Winning
1. Cancer Addressed Humanly
Unfortunately, the amount of cancer victims in America has seemed to grow in the past few decades. Fortunately, treatments have increased, too. In Wit, Edson does not sentimentalize the diagnosis nor does she portray cancer victims as some sort of heroic superheroes. Instead, Edson infuses a woman's chronicle of her cancer diagnosis with dark humor, the reality of competing mental and relational forces, and humanity. She examines the "scary" topic in a way that reveals more than just the emotional and physical tolls it has on people; she examines cancer so as to better understand the human condition in relationship with larger battles: life vs. death, independence vs. dependence, isolation vs. community, mercy vs. shame.

2. Vivian Bearing's Storytelling
The main character's flashbacks and discussions with the audience are brilliant as they are juxtaposed to her current chemotherapy sessions and hospital stays. She demands the audience make meaning out of the juxtaposition of scenes. She also allows the reader to discover that she is wearing a psychological mask--she is approaching her sickness academically. Ultimately, she sheds her mask, which disturbs the audience; the audience questions whether they intrinsically desired for her to not be wearing a mask. Additionally, the audience can find their spirit within Vivian's and wrestle with the notion that we all put on masks to hide from reality. Life is short, and we are human. Are masks worth it? All of these rich prompts are available only because of the order in which Vivian tells her story. The structuring by Edson is to be admired. Or you can disagree with me. 

Classroom Implications
I think students could actually really enjoy this play. Although Vivian is such an academic, her dialogue is rather straightforward and accessible. The parallels Edson creates are not always subtle, so students wouldn't struggle entirely to understand how Edson is stylistically developing theme and character. The topics of cancer, death, and life could be engaging and challenging. I am not sure what I would pair the text with right now. Perhaps Tuesdays with Morrie. It could even be used with The Glass Menagerie in terms of comparing structure, narration/POV, and theme.

Personal Takeaway
Juxtaposition and parallelism can spawn great discussion.

Ranking

	Dialogue	Characters	Plot/Conflict	Symbol/Literary Devices	Overall Enjoyment	TOTAL SCORE 8.25
0	Unfollowable; unrealistic; diction does not match character	Undeveloped; does not reflect humanity	Not engaging; predictable; reader can step away from text because it isn’t gripping	Devices are apparent for cleverness and do not enhance the story	Reader has no interest in re-reading play
1	Not consistently realistic	Well-developed; most depictions reflect humanity	Semi-engaging; some unnecessary plot-points (1.5)	Devices somewhat enhance story	Reader would re-read with pleasure and reminded of work (1.5)
2	Realistic; connotative; diction matches characters (1.75)	Fully-developed; depictions reflect humanity  (1.75)	Engaging; unique; reader finds it impossible to put down text because the conflict is so gripping!	Devices seamlessly enhance the story and provide rich interpretation (1.75)	Reader would re-read the play on own volition, enthusiastically