UNLV theater department handles cancer with ‘Wit’

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 8:48 a.m.

What: "Wit."

When: 8 p.m. today and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. (Additional performances will be Wednesday through April 9 and April 13 through April 17.)

Where: UNLV Black Box Theatre.

Tickets: $25; $20 for students seniors, military and handicapped.

Information: 895-2787.

When UNLV's theater department selected Margaret Edson's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Wit" for its 2004-'05 season, it had no idea how timely the play would be on opening night.

Centering on Vivian Bearing, a 17th-century poetry professor who in her 47th year learns she has ovarian cancer, the play examines the way this woman must choose how to live out the last days of her life -- and who will make her end-of-life decisions.

"It's a perfect example of art reflecting life," said director Glenn Casale, referring to the Terry Schiavo case. "What are the options we have at the end of our life? What makes for a more pleasant death?"

The play, presented in the Black Box Theatre, was written by Edson, an elementary school teacher in Georgia who worked in a cancer and AIDS inpatient unit at a research hospital.

In a 1999 interview on "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," Edson said she chose the profession of poetry professor because she wanted someone who was powerful and intellectual, but "clumsy in her relations with people."

In the play, the aggressive, independent and highly intellectual Bearing (played by equity actress Judy Jean Berns) has long ago traded human relationships for a fully academic life, and is unprepared for the emotions and situations that confront her.

But Bearing's monologues are clever and witty, thus the title. When we meet her at the beginning of the play, she tells us, "It is not my intention to give away the plot, but I think I die in the end."

Told from a nurse's point of view, the play deals with how callous doctors look at patients as research.

Through the 90-minute, no-intermission production, we learn of Bearing's life through flashbacks and how her end-of-life experiences mirror themes such as Donne's poetry, particularly the "Holy Sonnets."

As treatment weakens Bearing, we see her transcend from a stoic intellectual to a more simple person in need of kindness.

Though cancer and death aren't easily digestible topics, Casale says that "Wit" inspires and educates and is more about life than death.

"It's really not about death and dying," Casale said. "What it's about is being strong through it all and taking charge in your life. We watch the discoveries."

Casale directed Sally Struthers in the Nevada Conservatory Theatre's December production of "Annie!" and Cathy Rigby in the touring production of "Peter Pan." He is working on "Dr. Dolittle" and the production of "Peter Pan" headed for Broadway.

Regarding "Wit," Casale said, "It's tough material. It's difficult to present anything that has a realistic approach ... If people are afraid of dying, they're not going to like it."