Sonora's Stage 3 Theatre Presents Acclaimed
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Drama "Wit"

Reviewed October 2, 2001
by Leo Stutzen, Modesto Bee

SONORA -- Once in a great while, a local theater comes up with a production that is more compelling than we have any right to expect. Stage 3's "Wit" is one of those rare gems.

I've seen "Wit" three times: in a stunning production on national tour in San Francisco, in an effective staging at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Saturday in Sonora. The first two were memorable theater experiences; the last was a riveting human experience. With four weekends left to the run, I'll do my best to see it at least once more.

The play itself is an extraordinary achievement of human insight, compassion, literary and medical research, spirituality and, yes, wit. It revolves around a woman's battle with cancer, fought with immense intelligence, wry humor and ultimately a heartfelt connection with values that smooth and warm the journey of life.

It was written in the mid-90s by Margaret Edson, an Atlanta elementary school teacher who had never before written for the stage and has said she won't do it again. If that's true, she'll quit with far more honors than most artists achieve in a lifetime, including the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Stage 3's production is an extraordinary achievement for Bay Area actress Elizabeth Ury, who plays Vivian Bearing, a scholar and teacher who has devoted her career to the metaphysical poetry of John Donne, and especially to his exploration of the relationships between man and God, and the boundary between life and the afterlife.

That may sound intimidating. Ury and Edson make it accessible.

But "Wit" isn't about literary scholarship. It's about a courageous woman, and about lessons in living learned under the most trying conditions.

Ury's first lines are directed to the audience, delivered with an infectious grin, bright hazel eyes, rounded cheeks, dimples: "Hi. How are you feeling today?" Then a pause for the inevitable laughs, and a cheery response: "Great." It's instantly funny, instantly ironic: It's the standard greeting at the research-and-teaching hospital where Bearing is being treated.

At the simplest level "Wit", invites comparison between Bearing's approach to teaching, which we see in flashback, and her physicians' approach to treatment.

Both allow no compromises; both are intensely dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and the training of a new generation of specialists; both shun the possibility and value of human-to-human contact -- of warmth, if you will.

The depictions are certainly accurate, if not universally so. But this is no tract about iciness in medicine or education.

Much more richly, it's about living and dying, told from a point of view that clearly reveres compassionate human relations as the core of a successful life and clearly believes in the view of the exaltation that follows instantly on the heels of death. It's a superb play, stunningly presented.

Ury receives able support from Betty Laws-LeFevre as the mentor who introduced her to the demands of rigorous scholarship, Stephen Daly as the senior physician who supervises her treatment, Graham Scott Green as the research-driven doctor who actually treats her, Lillian Lynch McLeod as the nurse who offers an essential dose of tenderness as well as medication, and five others in varied ensemble roles.
Michael Lynch directed this seamless production.

"Wit" runs through Oct. 28 at Stage 3 Theatre, 208 S. Green St., Sonora. Shows start at 7 p.m. Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets cost $10-$14 for adults, $8 students; call 536-1778.