BWW Reviews: WIT at Wasatch Theatre

How are you feeling today?

In WIT, that's the question that's asked -- frequently -- of Vivian Bearing, who is in a hospital oncology unit being treated with an experimental chemotherapeutic treatment regimen for metastatic ovarian cancer. In stage four, after stages two and three went undetected. And there's no stage five, Bearing explains.

Bearing also turns to the audience on occasion to ask the audience the same question, most poignantly with the first line of the play.

Playwright Margaret Edson, who received a 1999 Pulitzer Prize for her work, wants us to feel - and feel very deeply. How are we feeling today? Do we treasure life? Do we marvel at both the simplicities and intricacies of life? Along with obvious: Do we value our health? And there's also the reminder of what an insidious demon cancer is.

Margaret Wise Brown's "The Runaway Bunny" is evocatively read at the play's conclusion. And the simple joy of that book is contrasted with English professor Bearing's lifelong study of metaphysical poetry of John Donne. Throughout the play, she recites Donne's Holy Sonnet X, "Death Be Not Proud." Wit is a conceit often employed in the 17th century poet's works.

"Wit," which also received the Best New Play Award from the New York Drama Critics' Circle and the Drama Desk at its off-Broadway premiere, is an explosively powerful drama. The Wasatch Theatre production mines the play's strength and superbly guides it to expert level. Director Vicki Pugmire is to be applauded for her outstanding contribution that makes "Wit" a standout success.

Teresa Sanderson's portrayal of Bearing is searing. The character is onstage for the length of the one-act, 100-minute play, with no intermission to interrupt WIT's intensity. Sanderson is caustic, endearing and full of droll self-mockery. She is intelligent, charming and undeniably forceful, precisely balance Bearing's struggle with her illness and the wonderful, unexpected touches of humor throughout. It's a bravura performance in a tremendous role.

And equal credit for the success of this production goes to Pugmire for the clarity and intelligence of her directing. The two talents of Pugmire and Sanderson forge to an infectious degree, guiding the eight other tremendous cast members and the splendid production overall.

Darryl Stamp is a sturdy presence as Bearing's doctor, Harvey Kelekian, and in a lovely interlude flashback, he also plays father to Bearing at five years old, when the two discover Beatrix Potter. Nicholas Dunn is effective as a clinical fellow who was also a former student in one of Bearing's university poetry classes and former student of Dr Bearing while also a current student of Dr. Kelekian. The dichotomies of those relationships in lesser hands can be tricky to sustain. Sallie Cooper plays an unemotional and caustic professor in Bearing's early days as a student, and Cooper is a warm addition to the cast, especially impactful in her final scene reading "The Runaway Bunny" to Bearing.

Nurse Susie Monahan can be a throwaway role, but she is the one character in the play with a heart for her patients. Haley McCormick is strong, equally sympathetic to Bearing's sufferings while initially with a no-nonsense approach to her hospital duties.

The ensemble members -- Anne Louise Brings, Maggie Goertzen, Ashley Marian Ramos, and Allen Smith -- play various roles, and the characters they create are distinctive and nicely played.

WIT can be seen as a tough play to take on because of its emotional content and extensive use of poetry. This production is beautifully wrought, emotionally penetrating and haunting.

"Now is the time for kindness," Bearing instructs us.

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