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Summary: W;t is moving & enlightening!
Review: When the play opens, Vivian Bearing, Ph. D., is a woman in control of her life & at the top of her profession, which is 17th century metaphysical poetry - a brilliantly difficult cerebral vocation. She is proud of her razor sharp deductive mind & her single-minded dedication to this arcane subject which has kept her far above the madding crowd & a spinster without family.Being a woman of words, she muses upon every one that is tossed her way by her oncologist, his avid pupil & attending technicians. While they are telling her what their textbooks infer, she is listening to what their language implies. Therein lies the humor & the pathos! Even as she endures the impersonal gawking of research doctors & their students she evaluates their teaching methods & their students' efforts, remembering her own method of teaching & her own attitude toward students. Yet to this woman of words, whenever she is asked how she feels, she is immoderately polite & reticent only uttering that fatuous monosyllable: "Fine!" W;t has been made into a film for HBO & will be aired in April 2001. Produced by Mike Nichols & starring one of my favorite actresses, Emma Thompson, W;t has come to a medium where everywoman can see & feel & be empowered by this learned lady's example. Made me think long on how we learn is how we teach; what would I do & be like were I to face this form of exit & keeping my wits about me. I recommend you experience Wit - it will surely change your life! Do check out my full review & catch it on TV: as with taxes, death does come to us all, it's how we face it that makes Wit brilliant!
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Summary: Wit
Review: I myself have terminal Breast Cancer. I felt every emotion she expressed. I watched it on Tv. I have been trying to find out if it was true. It was so real for me. I was sick as I watched it, and at the end as she looked to the audience, when the doctor asked about her pain, I reached out to the TV and held her hand. And the nurse was like myself, I worked as a Nurse, so I felt both actors feelings. I won't forget it.
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Summary: not the book, but the movie
Review: I haven't read the play, although I plan to. If it is half as good as the HBO movie by Emma Thompson and Mike Nichols, I will not be disappointed
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Summary: Beaut;ful
Review: Edson does what so few modern playwrights are able to do- she reinforces a satiric look at her subject with solid characters that draw the reader into the story. The play is further strengthened by clever dialogue and brilliant symbolism (the projection of Donne's poem onto Dr. Bearing's body, and the semicolon, for example), thus creating a lovely synergy of all aspects of great dramatic writing, and leaving the reader (or viewer) moved to his/her emotional limit. W;t will serve not only to entertain, but also, as with all good literature, to make the reader want to go back and discover more and more meaning each time he/she experiences the play.
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Summary: Read it, see it, be transformed!
Review: Wit. A perfect name for a perfect play, yes, perfect! Margaret Edson's first foray into theater is a masterpiece which, she'll probably never out-do, but who cares. If you get a chance to see the play, do so, sell your teeth if you have to. I saw it at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco with Judith Light. What a powerful show! I had no idea what I was going to see, I walked out of the theatre, transformed. From the very start of the play when she says, "It is not my intention to give away the plot, but I think I die at the end." We know she's a force. Then at the end, when she finally throws away all the metaphysical conceit, the bantering about, and the complications of the meaning of life. When she finally adopts simplicity and kindness. When she throws off the IV, catheter, the cap covering her bald head, her hospital ID bracelet, and her gowns, and stands naked before us, reaching up, transformed. We know it's never to late, to change, to be transformed. And we find that in fact, along with Vivian, we are indeed transformed. We need to be loving, caring, and cherish what and who we have, and we know we will. We're gentler, better, transformed. Vivian Bearing, a professor of seventeenth-century poetry, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, has stage four, metastatic, ovarian cancer; there is no stage five. She's in the hospital throughout the play except in flashbacks to her college years, her childhood years, and her teaching years. She is a no-nonsense woman, steeping her life in the intricacies of metaphysical poetry. In her field she is "a force." We know she's a force because we can see it, or read it from the time she walks out on stage. Immeasureably strong, she learns that it is never to late to learn a lesson, to undergo a change, to be transformed. Even if one has stage four, metastatic, ovarian cancer. She has no friends, has never been exposed to human kindness, has never shown human kindness. Bearing is a Scrooge-like characters who becomes her own ghosts, and she, and we, are transformed. Enchanted. The insensitivity of the doctors is accurate, but not the point, the question in philosophical: Why do we do what we do? Why do we make the choices we make? The eternal Why? There wasn't a dry eye in the theatre when Vivian Bearing gave the nurse half of her popsicle, finally, learning how to love. To give. To live. As Bearing says herself, "Now is not the time for verbal swordplay, for unlikely flights of imagination and wildly shifting perspectives, for metaphysical conceit, for wit. Now is a time for simplicity. Now is a time for, dare I say it, kindness." That's right it is, thank you Vivian, It's time to go. And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
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Summary: Life with Style
Review: I was captivated by the synopsis I read and could not wait to read the play. It seems almost heartless to say "it's a great read" - vital intelligent woman dying of cancer - but it is! Now I've had the opportunity to see W;t on stage and the power of the written word was brilliantly brought to life by the Ensemble Theatre in Sydney Australia. The character of Vivianne Bearing created by Margaret Edson, exhibits the strengths and weaknesses of real women in the same siutation. The ending is so powerful and reflected for me the death of a loved one, who died with a look of triumph on her face. Read it! See it! This is a play with a long shelf life.
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Summary: What a play should be
Review: This is the ideal play. It's intelligent, moving, witty (as you could probably guess), and really makes you examine what you value as important in your life. This is more than just a story of a woman dealing with cancer, it is about a woman dealing with her views on life as a whole. (The play also manages to incorporate some great John Donne poetry.) The scene in which Vivian's teacher reads _The Runaway Bunny_ is one of the most single touching scenes ever written for the stage. Buy it, read it, see it, this is a great play.
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Summary: Must read, from both sides of the fence
Review: Originally saw the play performed at Kennedy Center. Unfortunately, I missed some essential aspects of the (primarily) monologue due to the overt reactions of members of the audience around me. Judith Light was embarking on John Donne's version of wit, and I was holding the hand of the sobbing man next to me (my husband was holding my other hand, and had a few teary moments as well). My husband recognized his own need for further understanding of "w;t" as well as my own wish for comprehension, so he purchased the screenplay and we both read it. Cynics are welcome to react with the generic approach to research, and oncology's dispassionate involvement between physician and patient. For those of us who have braved the ordeal of loving a professor, a physician, a mother, a father, a child, a friend, a neighbor, a professional and/or a technician, I dare say that everyone of us has known at least one other who has undergone the transformation from one state of being to succumbing to the state of being that is succinctly titled as: cancer patient. "W;t" does not mire anyone in the lonliness that is the 50 year old professor with no immediate family and whose main claim to fame is her incredible knowledge of the famed poet John Dunne. For those of us who have read and been moved by "Death Be Not Proud," Dunne has already touched our lives (for me, it was required reading in seventh grade). What I missed in the theater production, I received twice again in the reading of the screenplay. I laud all who created what is "W;t" and only pity those who choose to neglect it.
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Summary: Dealing with Cancer
Review: I intially looked at this play to see the references to John Donne's poetry, but was swept away by the tight drama of the story of an indomitable English professor courageously coping with cancer - with a dash of w;t. The meaning of the Semi-colon is explained in the play, it becomes a symbol of intellectual rigour, and an attutude of professionalism, either in coping with cancer, or studying English literature. What is also insightful is the portrayal of everyone else around her, how they help, or do not help, either through ignorance and insensitivity, or self-interest. I think for people in academic situations, or in any profession where status is so important, it will show that perhaps admiration is not better compassion when you are on the death bed.
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Summary: MOVED BEYOND TEARS
Review: The w;t of this poignant peice of insanely beautiful art lies not just within the dialogue, but within the author's uncanny ability to make her audience FEEL. Vivian is real. You cannot pass her off as a character flaw, because she is what lies within all of us. Her strength is astonishing. Her pain is heartrending. Her death is devastating. Believe you me, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE VIVIAN BERRING DIE. You are there with her, mind, body, and soul, and it will astound you almost beyond comprehension when you realize that you do not only sympathize with this character, but you care for her as well. Margaret Edson should be praised on the highest level, with praise that no award, no matter how grand (the pulitzer), can account for. Not only is the dialogue witty and funny, it is human. It is humane. Edson has touched a part of the human soul that has remained dormant since childhood. That is, Vivian eventually must come to terms with the knowledge that she will die, and that pristine child-like innocence that comes with birth, and eventually with death, returns to her. Even after the "no-nonsense" persona she puts out, even this innocence touches Vivian. Read this play. It will change your life.
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