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About Wit
Margaret Edson's playwriting career consists of just one work. But what a miraculous endeavor Wit is. The winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize, it's a carefully crafted, minimalist study of an exacting philosophy professor who needs more than her acumen to get through the final stages of her battle with cancer.
It's now on Broadway for the first time, courtesy of Manhattan Theatre Club, with Tony winner Cynthia Nixon (of Sex and the City fame) turning in an impressive performance—sans hair—as Dr. Vivian Bearing, a John Donne scholar whose approach to life is a lot like her approach to his poem "Death Be Not Proud": serious and scientific. A solitary individual, Vivian counts on her ironic humor to get her through several stages of experimental treatment. United by her narration, Wit veers back and forth between her time in the hospital and defining moments in her past—with her father (Michael Countryman, who doubles as one of Vivian's doctors), her mentor (splendidly evocative Suzanne Bertish) and her students.
At the hospital Vivian is under the supervision of a young research fellow (Greg Keller) who happens to be a former student—and who sees her as more of a scientific case study than a human being. It's only from a pair of women—Susie (Carra Patterson), a nurse, and Vivian's now-elderly mentor—that she receives any amount of warmth or compassion.
Nixon isn't as ferociously hard-edged as Kathleen Chalfant, the original Vivian, but her portrayal is still stirring, thanks to Edson's deeply affecting play. Helmed by MTC artistic director Lynne Meadow, it's just as humane and moving as it was 14 years ago.
BY DIANE SNYDER
Visit the Site
http://witonbroadway.com/
Cast
Pun Bandhu, Suzanne Bertish, Michael Countryman, Jessica Dickey, Chiké Johnson, Greg Keller, Cynthia Nixon, Carra Patterson, Zachary Spicer
Open/Close Dates
Opening 1/5/2012
Closing 3/17/2012
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
Neighborhood: West 40s
New York, NY 10036
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