[ssba]
Wit
Reviewed by Neal Weaver
Lounge Theatre
Runs Indefinitely
RECOMMENDED:
English Professor Vivian Bearing, Ph.D. (Kelly Carlton), the central figure in Margaret Edson’s clever and provocative play, has won distinction in the academic world for her masterly critical edition of John Donne’s Religious Sonnets, but scholarship and fame can’t protect her from the ravages of terminal ovarian cancer. Once the disease is diagnosed, she calls upon all her knowledge, stoicism, and wit to help her understand and endure both the disease itself, and the humiliations of her treatment by callous, determinedly objective doctors.
This rendition, directed by Travis Stanberry and Kelly Carlton, brings to the play a wonderful clarity, at least for most of its length. It is clearly apparent at every turn just how the various elements — literary, philosophical and dramatic — fit together, at least till the very end.
In what appears to be a directorial addition, immediately after Bearing’s demise, the emergency team embarks on a frantic and downright violent attempt to bring her back, despite her “do not resuscitate” order. It’s up to the tough but compassionate nurse Susie (Alicia Deyer) to call a halt to the proceedings, and bring up the medical charts to prove that there was a no resuscitation order. And she later comforts Bearing’s physician and former student Dr. Posner (Rishi Arya) when he breaks down emotionally.
It’s hard to tell what the directors had in mind, but it appears that perhaps they felt a need to soften the harsh criticism of the medical faculty. But the result is a sharp shift in focus from Bearing to her medical practitioners. This minimizes the impact of Bearing’s death, and eliminates the note of transcendence which marked the original play. And a jokey, choreographed curtain call also seems to minimize her importance.
As Bearing, co-director Kelly Carlton gives us a terrific portrait of a woman who does not suffer fools gladly, and views her care-givers with rueful disenchanted wit and exasperated asperity. Arya’s Posner is a brilliant but tactless and emotionally tone-deaf doctor who is blinded by his research-needs to the real suffering of his patient. Bill Welden is emotionally remote as the senior physician, and Deyer makes a sympathetic figure of the nurse, while Kathleen Rubin scores as Bearing’s dictatorial academic colleague and teacher.
One can’t help regretting the violence done to the play’s ending, but the production up to that point is fine enough to compensate.
Stage Against the Machine at The Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood. Variable schedule, indef. https://satm.brownpapertickets.com or https://satm.org.
