Colored lights flash. A woman in a hospital gown walks forward, pulling an IV drip on a pole with her. The woman wears a ball cap to cover her bald head, and informs the audience that she has stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer—and that there is no stage five.
This is the beginning of Margaret Edson’s W;t, a powerful play about life, death and the human condition. The main character, Vivian Bearing, PhD, is a teacher and scholar of seventeenth century poetry, particularly the metaphysical works of John Donne. Vivian possesses an incomparable knowledge of her subject matter, and has little patience for those who don’t fully devote their intellectual ability to the teachings at hand.
Ever the professor, Bearing introduces the audience to the works of Donne, transforming the audience into both students and witnesses to her career and life. Vivian shares her past experiences through a series of flashbacks, while intermittently returning to the present to chronicle her increasingly difficult struggle with cancer. The audience witnesses her transition from an authoritative professor full of life to a helpless patient as Vivian learns to suffer with dignity. She uses her gift of wit to attempt to deal with the paradox of time, the loneliness of cancer and the isolation chemotherapy brings. The once unshakably independent women is reduced to complete dependence on her nurse to care for her basic physical and emotional needs as she undergoes eight months of harsh chemotherapy.
The character of Vivian Bearing is powerfully portrayed by Dawna Diaz, who completely devoted herself to the role and even shaved off her hair to complete the transformation into her character. “It was emotionally difficult and draining to prepare for the role,” Diaz says. “There was a little fear and trepidation when it came time to shave my head, but it’s such a small sacrifice compared to what people sacrifice when they go through cancer.”
W;t touches the audience in a way that only a piece about universal humanity can. “Most people know someone who has been affected by cancer,” says W;t director Missy Bell. “This play is an amazing piece of literature, a masterpiece of writing. The audience is left with the message that all the things in life that we think are important really aren’t. It’s the people in our lives that are important.”
At times funny, and at other times difficult and wrenching to watch, W;t is ultimately a rewarding and introspective experience for audience members. When asked what insight Diaz personally acquired from portraying the role, she said: “It helped me reevaluate my life, to appreciate the moment I am in now.”
W;t is being presented by The Newtowne Players at the Three Notch Theater in Lexington Park from May 14 through 30. Tickets are available for purchase at the door or online at http://www.newtowneplayers.org/.
