Wit (play)

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1999 Faber and Faber edition of the play.

Wit (also spelled W;t) is a play by Margaret Edson about a university professor of English who is dying of ovarian cancer. As she copes with her life-threatening cancer she asseses her own life through the intricacies of the English language, especially the use of wit and the metaphysical poetry of John Donne.

It received its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 1995. It was produced by the MCC Theater, NY as part of its 1998/1999 season.

It won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

There is a 2001 television movie of the same name starring Emma Thompson.

[edit] Plot Summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

(Note:. This summarizes the movie. The play is structured slightly differently.)

The movie begins with two extremely well educated individuals conversing formally about the patient's condition and the doctor's treatment plan. One individual (the patient) is a professor of English literature. The other (the doctor) is a research oncologist. The doctor informs the patient that she has been diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic ovarian cancer. The fact that this diagnosis has an almost uniformly bad outcome is not discussed. Rather, the doctor proposes an experimental chemotherapeutic treatment regimen consisting of eight rounds at full dosage. The patient says she's tough enough to withstand the treatment and signs up. We see her endure the indignities visited upon patients in hospitals, the minimal quality of life that cancer patients experience, the utterly feckless behavior of a brilliant young physician researcher, and the care and attention paid by a dedicated nurse. Eventually, the patient reaches the end stage in extreme anguish. Her elderly graduate school mentor comes to town only to learn that her pupil has taken ill. She visits the patient in the hospital and comforts her. She offers to read to her a metaphysical sonnet by John Donne (a piece she recites throughout the play as she reflects upon her condition within the hospital), which the patient refuses. Instead she reads from a child's storybook that she had bought for a great-grandson. The patient enters a coma and codes (or flatlines) somewhat later. Doctor Feckless, having forgotten the DNR directive, calls in the resuscitation team who begin CPR only to be vociferously informed by the nurse that the patient has signed a DO NOT RESUSCITATE order.