"It is not my intention to give away the plot," Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., announces near the beginning of Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, "but I think I die at the end. They've given me less than two hours."
What a way to start a show, huh?
In W;t, Vivian Bearing has recently been diagnosed with late stage ovarian cancer and is embarking on a fast and furious eight step, full dose experimental chemo treatment. The audience witnesses Vivian's last two hours of life. Just as the title suggests, the show is sprinkled with wit and wisdom designed to ratchet down the tension of what is happening onstage to the dying Bearing, "Once I did the teaching, now I am taught. This is much easier. I just hold still and look cancerous. It requires less acting every time." 
W;t was received by the theatre community with open arms which heralded the show as one that truly made you consider the ties between soul and body. The show was not nominated for a Tony because it never played in a Broadway theatre, but instead remained in a small very Off-Broadway venue for the entirety of it's run. 
W;t won the1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the New York Drama Critic's Circle Award. Industrious theatre goers will find this play running in small theatres all over the country.
1 comment:
Oh my. I want to see this!
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