Exquisitely written, affecting and often humorous, Wit follows a brilliant and exacting poetry professor as she undergoes experimental treatment for cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to academia, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research.
What Is the Story of Wit?
Wit centers on Vivian Bearing, a brilliant and seemingly unemotional poetry professor as she undergoes an experimental and extremely aggressive chemotherapy treatment for metastatic Stage IV ovarian cancer. A scholar who devoted her life to mastering the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, she must now face the irony and injustice of becoming the subject of research. As Vivian undergoes treatment at the hands of impersonal doctors (including one of her former students), she discovers that human compassion may be more important than intellectual wit. More than a play about cancer, Margaret Edson’s 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama presents a teacher becoming a student of life as she contemplates her possible death.
"Nixon commands her spotlight with a nimble, sensitive portrayal, but there’s also key support from Greg Keller as a brash young oncologist, Carra Patterson as a sympathetic caregiver and the formidable Suzanne Bertish as Bearing’s stern literary mentor. Donne chastised death for being proud, but this company earns its bragging rights."
Time Out New York
David Cote
"Cynthia Nixon’s unsparing performance makes Margaret Edson’s celebrated play a powerfully moving experience."
The Hollywood Reporter
David Rooney
"An immaculately staged 100-minute journey. Cynthia Nixon is illuminating. Her performance is large, lucid and delicate at the same time. Directed with a persuasive combination of showmanship and sensitivity by Lynne Meadow, this production magnifies the innate theatricality of Ms. Edson’s play without compromising the firm emotional truth at its center."
The New York TImes
Ben Brantley
"Grade A. Fearless doesn't even begin to describe Nixon’s performance. She never fails to captivate. Her blue eyes flicker wildly with intelligence and rage. She is, in short, a force in Meadow’s elegant revival which is both heartbreaking and heartening to watch. Edson’s play is about so much more than one woman's disease. It's about knowledge, ignorance, humanity, love, life and death."
Entertainment Weekly
Melissa Rose Bernardo
"Four stars: Taut and engaging. Nixon gives a commanding performance in Meadow’s skillfully guided production."
New York Daily News
Joe Dziemianowicz
