Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 69
[her doctors] are simply delighted. I think they foresee
celebrity status for themselves upon the appearance of
the journal article they will no doubt write about me.
But I flatter myself. The article will not be about
me, it will be about my ovaries. It will be about my
peritoneal cavity, which, despite their best intentions, is
now crawling with cancer. What we have come to think
of as me is, in fact, just the specimen jar, just the dust
jacket, just the white piece of paper that bears the little
black marks.
Vivian’s free use of seven-syllable words, her refining
of words on the spot (from “very sick” to “very, very sick”
to “ultimately sick”; from “steadfast” to “resolute”), her
public style of presentation (“ladies and gentlemen”), her
parallel phrases (“I have . . . I have . . . I have . . .,” “just
the . . . just the . . . just the . . .”), her use of alliteration
(“just . . . jar . . . just . . . jacket, just”), and her use of
opposing images (“white piece of paper . . . little black
marks”) tell us volumes about her character and how
she is “distinguishing” herself in illness. Richness of linguistic
detail lends a play authority and an aura of sureness.
Details surround the play’s characters much like a city
surrounds homes—both give cultural and psychological
contexts. Detail also lends specificity: specific people are
engaged in specific tasks in a specific place. Going to (or
even reading) a play rich with texture is like taking a trip to
another world—and it is an adventure no travel agent could
possibly book.
Richness is not an easy quality to develop in writing.
It demands of its author a gift for close observation,
an uninhibited imagination, a consummate vocabulary,
and an astute sense of what to leave out as well as what
Margaret Edson’s Wit—about an English professor dying of cancer—began as a script “tossed over the transom” at South Coast
Repertory in California by the yet-unknown playwright; it was soon premiered by that company and not long after was awarded
the 1999 Pulitzer Prize. This 2012 Broadway revival featured Cynthia Nixon as Dr. Vivian Bearing; Michael Countryman plays one
of her doctors. It was directed by Lynne Meadow for the Manhattan Theatre Club. © Sara Krulwich/The New York Times/Redux