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Play seeks ‘Wit’ in cancer, finds beauty, insight Depressing mediation on death evolves into breathtaking journey By CHARLES RUNNELLS, crunnells@news-press.com On the surface, “Wit” seems a gloomy meditation on death and cancer.But, ultimately, this achingly human, deeply felt play is so much more. While I felt emotionally drained after watching “Wit” at Arcade Theatre, I also felt enriched and enlivened. Lines and dramatic moments surfaced in my mind again and again for days afterward. It’s easy to see why Margaret Edson’s work won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize. “Wit” tells the story of Dr. Vivian Bearing, an intimidatingly brilliant scholar of 17th century poetry who is diagnosed with terminal, stage four ovarian cancer : there is no stage five. Bearing (played by an intense Kim Crow) narrates the play with caustic humor and a growing warmth. “It’s not my intent to give away the plot,” she says to her constant confidante, the audience, at the beginning of the play, “but I think I die at the end. They’ve given me less than two hours. ... Then, curtain.” Laurence Imbert’s set is stunning in its simple lines and stark beauty: blue-green tiled wall and a bare floor onto which hospital beds, IV poles and desks are briskly wheeled on and off. Crow is lightning in a bottle from start to finish, although sometimes her performance veers dangerously toward overacting. That’s forgivable, however, since her character is meant to be larger than life, at least in the beginning. She speaks in grand sweeps of sentences with a sly smile and an arrogant, almost aristocratic lilt to her voice. Crow’s tour de force performance as a waning cancer patient, from initial denial to wracking dry heaves to cowering moans of fear. are all too believable. By the end of the show, I felt myself deeply attached to this flawed yet human character. Even when the play gets its most harrowing, humor undercuts the pain. Bearing describes how doctors are always asking her “How are you feeling today?,” even while she’s in the process of vomiting in a bucket. When one doctor asks what she does for exercise, she answers flatly: “Pace.” But as time progresses, everything becomes less of a joke for Bearing. And she begins examining the isolated way she’s lived her life, and how she’s managed to clutter and complicate things along the way. It’s a breathtaking journey filled with lyrical beauty and insight. The show’s supporting cast are well-placed and well-acted. Greg Longenhagen’s Dr. Jason Posner, Bearing’s former student who is now a fellow at the research hospital, rings true. His awkward but brilliant Posner is obviously more comfortable with test tubes and microscopes than human beings. For him, Bearing IS a test tube, a container for the cancer he’s studying. In one telling exchange, Bearing asks Posner, “What do you say when a patient is apprehensive, frightened?” Posner responds with perfect naivete: “Of who?” As nurse Susie, Stephanie Davis plays Bearing’s only friend at the hospital. Davis’ smiling, thoughtful Susie is simpleminded but tender, someone who obviously got into the job to help people instead of study them. Thanks to director Pamela Hunt, the show is given a purposeful but unhurried pace, and the choreography is always active and energized, even during the slower moments. In the end, “Wit” is one of those shows you have to experience to truly understand and love. Florida Repertory Theatre took a chance in bringing such an unconventional show to Fort Myers, and I’m glad it did. When the curtain drops, both Bearing and the audience are left permanently changed. © Copyright 2000 The News-Press. All rights reserved