Leanne Shultz
How does one live peacefully while staring into the eyes of death? "Wit" explores the story of a woman's fight for life against cancer and her ability to seemingly take it all in stride. She tells her story through a series of flashbacks and monologues, but also shows through example the ridiculousness of her hospital care. Her constant references to John Donne, the 17th century English poet obsessed with death, demonstrate both her acceptance of her own end and yet fear of what is to come afterward. She, too, has Donne's salvation anxiety.
The 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner for Drama,"Wit" has only been performed in six other theatres before arriving at Ann Arbor's Performance Network. Many Michigan theatres wrestled to be the first to perform the play in this state, and the Performance Network was picked by the playwright herself, Margaret Edson. Edson was inspired to write "Wit" after working as a clerk in the oncology and AIDS department of a Washington hospital in 1985. Her strong background in history and literature resonates throughout the play, giving life and knowledge to Vivian. Currently, Edson teaches kindergarten in Atlanta.
"Wit" is, at the surface, the story of a woman dying of stage-4 ovarian cancer. Vivian, played by Jan Radcliff, is a true scholar. She has dedicated her life to knowledge, especially to the poems of John Donne. She is crushed when she learns she cannot teach during the chemotherapy. Her ability to remain sarcastic about her sickness is due largely to her familiarity with death, formed over years of Donne's poetry. Radcliff's performance is amazing, creating an unforgettable and lovable character that seems to show the audience 'how it really is.' Her pain and grief are so wrenching that she draws the audience in deeper, into the reality of Vivian's life. She is a sharp woman who always seems to understand her own situation before it is explained to her, yet constantly craves more knowledge. She loves Donne's poetry because it doesn't provide any definite answers, it only provokes more questions. She refers to this as 'wit,' as a huge puzzle that never gets solved and yet still offers so much to be learned from on the way. She uses the wit to quantify the complications in her life, and from this derives her wonderful sarcasm.
Throughout the play, Vivian is treated as more of an experiment than a human being. The nurse Susie, played by Kelly Pino, is the only person who attempts to be sympathetic toward her. Still, Vivian regards her as nothing more than a bird brain. Jason, played by Nick Barnes, is both a doctor and an ex-student of Vivian's. His anxiety and discomfort about having to examine her becomes comical, and she herself learns the feeling of humiliation. Vivian is alone much of the time, and only near the end does she begin to accept that she is lonely and more dependent on human contact than she thought. When asked to make the decision about what to do if her heart stops, she says to just let her go. Vivian shows fear near the end of her life, burying herself underneath her pillow and trying to hide from death. This draws a comparison to an earlier story she refers to in which a man is afraid of God even after being forgiven, and hides under a rock. This signifies her salvation anxiety and fear: is she to die without truth? Only in the last minutes of her life does she receive a visitor, and it is one of her old professors, Ms. Ashford. Ashford reads her a children's story about a bunny rabbit, which reminds Vivian of her childhood. She is able to leave her life at peace, reciting Donne, "Death shall be no more, Death thou shall die!" She embraces the end of her life with open arms.
Mary Locker directed the play. Her choice to move the props on and off the stage as they were needed intensified the overall effect of Vivian's desolation. A black, bare set enveloped the character much of the time, proving both her independence and her vulnerability. Almost always at center stage, Vivian's role as a scientific guinea pig to the doctors in the hospital is affirmed. The scenes representing the hospital lobby showed the frantic demeanor of the hospital and its apathy toward its patients vividly, seeming incredibly real due to the attention to details, such as a loudspeaker obnoxiously paging a doctor. At the end of the play when Vivian is dead, the fighting between doctors to resuscitate her while her soul happily walks away is truly stunning. Then, as they realize she is gone, she stands behind them, elated.
The play's lighting also made some stunning visual statements. A story was told through different location and lighting. Vivian repeatedly returned to center stage for monologues in a strong key light while all else around her was bathed in complete darkness. Only rarely did color enter the stage, and when it was used it was extremely striking. During the play, Vivian wanders about the stage, reliving various memories, each receiving different lighting. All hospital scenes received bright, harsh white light, furthering the already disenchanting tone set by the characters. When Vivian regresses to her past, talking to her father about a children's book or to a college professor about a paper, the lighting is yellowed and creates a warmer, fonder effect. The color green is used but once, when Vivian speaks of knowledge and poet John Donne's wit. Blue enters the play as she begins to be aware of her death, and becomes more frightened. As she becomes increasingly aware that she is going to die and her strong character begins to crack, blue lighting becomes more frequent. The most stunning visual statement, however, appears at the end when Vivian is shown in the background, finally free of her cancerous body, bathed in bright light and truly happy for the first time in the play.
"Wit," by Margaret Edson, will be playing at the Performance Network until November 19th, 2000. Just recently moved, the Performance Network now has a beautiful new theatre, made possible by the overwhelming support of the Ann Arbor community. Tickets and general information available by calling 734.663.0681, emailing pnetwork@bizserve.com, or visiting http://www.performancenetwork.org. The Performance Network is now located at 120 E. Huron St, Ann Arbor, Mi.