- Paperback: 85 pages
- Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1 edition (Mar 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0571198775
- ISBN-13: 978-0571198771
- Product Dimensions: 19.9 x 12.8 x 0.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 735,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The fact that this play doesn't have an interval adds to an overwhelming sense of pressure running throughout. It's nailbiting, gripping stuff, with an unlikeable heroine and even more unlikeable sub-characters (Dr Bearing's nurse Suzie aside).
Not just an exploration of cancer, but an examination of the soul and the need to let down one's guard and allow human kindness to support you, Margaret Edson fully deserved every accolade she got for this powerful and stunning play.
A must-read that works extremely well on stage - directors should give this one a look and if you enjoyed, say, Flowers for Algernon, or appreciate a well-written, cleverly plotted read, this should be on your wishlist pronto.
Format:Paperback
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 to 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!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
58 reviews
52 of 53 people found the following review helpful
The most powerful play I've seen/read in years
16 Mar 2000
Format:Paperback
I bought and read the play after seeing it performed twice by Judith Light, once off-Broadway and once regionally in Washington, D.C. I believe one would find the play equally powerful without having seen it. Perhaps because Margaret Edson never had formal training as a playwright, no one told her what she "shouldn't" do, and as a result, Wit is a brilliant, searing, *unique* vision of how a woman's mind becomes sharper and more insightful even as her body deteriorates. The character of Dr. Vivian Bearing reminded me a lot of Maria Callas in "Master Class" (at least, as rendered on stage); both are strong, imperious characters who draw you into their confidence while challenging you to keep up. And it's a relief to find a play that doesn't talk down to its readers/viewers, and actually contains, for instance, a lecture on a Donne sonnet -- which, incredibly, moves the action forward. After reading or seeing the play, you feel emotionally drained but energized.
I'm both a cancer patient and a playwright, and I can only hope that I'm able to produce as eloquent and powerful a work as Margaret Edson has given us.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
What Not To Do and Why To Do It Anyway
24 May 2003
Format:Paperback
Playwright Margaret Edson does everything in this play that playwrighting and directing teachers tell their students not to do. She speaks in jargon. She breaks the fourth wall. She demands a hefty cast. She's digressive.
Yet the play, both in performance and as literature, is compelling. This play, in the great expressionist style, creates a world as seen through the eyes of only one character. Events unfold from a distinct point of view that is made comprehensible to us by allowing that POV to address us apart from stage events.
Edson, a literature graduate and former oncology ward worker, is knowledgeable about the topics that inform this play: classic poetry and cancer. The connection between the metaphysical lyrics of John Donne and the imminent mortality of uterine cancer provide a smooth harmony in the character of Dr. Vivian Bearing. Thematically and structurally, this play has the theatrical elements that make playwrights from Sophocles to Strindburg to Sam Shepard writers of great significance.
This isn't to say the play is easy to stage. Scene shifts take place without a pause to let actors get their feet. Our narrator gets a pelvic exam in full view of the audience. Supporting characters double on the fly, and lead characters have to change ages from scene to scene. At the final moments, our narrator appears in front of us as naked as the day she was born.
But these difficult elements contribute to the great meaning that is this play. Without these trials, the production wouldn't touch us in the same way. We need these almost offensive structural components to understand what the narrator must endure.
This play is difficult to read, difficult to stage, difficult to watch. Yet the things that make it difficult make it most ultimately rewarding. A modern classic from a forward-thinking mind.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
Great play
30 Oct 1999
Format:Paperback
Dr. Vivian Bearing is renowned throughout the literary world for her expertise on John Donne's seventh century Holy Sonnets. The professor enjoys teaching at the University, but not as much as she relishes a rational analysis of Donne's brilliant work.
However, the fiftyish Vivian soon learns that she suffers from late stage ovarian cancer. The University medical research staff provide her a rare opportunity to receive special experimental treatment. She soon finds herself feeling sicker from the "cure" than the disease even as she discovers that it is simpler to learn than to teach. As Vivian goes through the eight stage process, she begins to appreciate the Donne sonnets as simple works of art by a great metaphysical poet, and not just intellectual fodder to be ripped asunder by English teachers like her.
W;T is an incredible play that forces the audience (reader or attendee) to evaluate ones values. The main theme is brutally honest yet done in a humorous, thought provoking manner. Margaret Edson provides one of the top plays of the decade as it leaves everyone agreeing it deserved the Pulitzer it won. This play (in book or theater form) needs to be experienced to understand the emotions its generates. Great work by a master playwright.
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