*****
NO PLAY in which cancer provides the major narrative force is going to be an easy watch, but Margaret Edson’s 1997 play, WIT, which surrounds the emotional pull of the story with the fierce intelligence and bright sardonic humour of the patient is an entertaining and thought-provoking piece of theatre, retaining the emotional thread throughout.
Dr Vivian Bearing, the patient, is a university professor and American intellectual powerhouse teaching seventeenth-century English Literature, with a particular admiration for the metaphysical poetry of John Donne. She’s dedicated, hyper-critical and forensic, examining the evidence minutely in her quest for meaning. A flashback to early inspiration, a tutorial with admired tutor Dr E M Ashford, sees a discussion about the placing of a comma in relation to a poem, altering its meaning. No detail is too small to be unexamined; students who cannot reach this level of accurate enquiry are a frustration, a frustration shared with consultant oncologist Harvey Kelekian, whose brutal delivery of diagnosis – stage four metastatic ovarian cancer – is an early and surprisingly comic moment in a surprisingly funny play.
Julie Hesmondhalgh, on stage throughout, dressed only in hospital gowns and baseball cap, is superb as the tetchy, demanding Bearing. It’s a good distance from the role we’re familiar seeing her in, as the transgender Hayley Cropper in Coronation Street (though Cropper was also struck down with cancer), where Hesmondhalgh’s warmth allowed the nation to love the UK's first transsexual soap character. In WIT it is her warmth that allows the audience to glimpse the many layers of character which make up the irascible academic, and her well-paced delivery keeps the non-specialists in the audience on track with the intellectual elements of her account.
There’s also a strong ensemble playing minor roles, with excellent performances in key roles from Esh Alladi as Dr Jason Posner and Jenny Platt, former Corrie cast member, as nurse Susie Monahan. Posner is in awe of Dr Bearing, whose class he'd subcribed to as an elective because it was the ‘most difficult’ of non-medical courses. He’s also in awe of cancer cells, in their ability to keep going, and in awe of Dr Kelekian and his research methods. Nurse Monahan provides the main human, caring element. Her lack of real intellect is a recurring matter for humour, but her emotional intelligence quotient is the highest of all.
Designer Hannah Clark makes carefully selected use of the stage’s revolve to bring movement in an otherwise static and sparse set, rigged up with the familiar props of hospital care. Raz Shaw’s direction allows the intellectual elements of the play to fascinate and then gently draws out the emotional pace, allowing the almost always present humour to win through.
Wit itself, its meaning centred on intelligence rather than a quick humour is a conceit, a technique the metaphysical poets used, and Dr Bearing’s forensic and exhausting examination of poetry texts in search of true meaning is comparable with the detailed medical examination of disease, in search of understanding and a cure. The comparison is not lost on Dr Bearing who comments on her change of status, from one who directs the study to one who is herself the subject of the study.
This is an excellent production of a unique play. As expected, it’s not an easy watch, but it is, despite the subject matter, a life-affirming evening.
WIT runs at The Royal Exchange Theatre until Saturday 13 February
