Analyzing Margaret Edson's Play 'Wit'

On October 22nd, at 7:30 pm, in Tarbutton Hall, I watched the play called, “Wit,” by Oxford College Theater. This play was written by Margaret Edson. Having read the play before, I was interested to see how Oxford Theater produced the play.

The cast did a very good job being in character the whole time, and communicating to the audience. I could feel the emotions each character was going through. It was incredible.

The main theme of this play is the realization a character goes through when she is on her deathbed. It communicates about death, personality of a person and relationships with other people, and the thought process of being in a job.

I especially liked how they portrayed Vivian, the main character of the play. Vivian, an English Professor focusing on John Donne, finds out that she has stage four ovarian cancer. Throughout the play, she communicates her thought process in the course of her treatment and death. She is a lonely character, without any visitors, and she is a very strict professor to the students. During the play, she changes her personality and regrets how she was while she recites John Donne’s poem. The audience can closely feel and understand what is going on with her.

There was no lights out to change the sets. The cast, wearing their hospital costumes, changed the sets by rolling in the props. This action of changing sets was not disturbing at all. Also, the props used were actual hospital equipment. Set and the props as a whole made me feel like I was in a