Despite small crowd, play 'Wit' impresses with story of life, death

It was hard to miss all of the commotion Saturday night on South Jordan Avenue. "The Nutcracker" in the Musical Arts Center and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in the IU Auditorium brought people, cars and something usually reserved for basketball games: policemen to control the crowds. In the midst of all the excitement, it might have been easy to miss the Wells-Metz Theatre nestled between the two larger venues, where a much smaller group sat rapt by the Theatre and Drama department's production of "Wit."\n"I was amazed," said IU alumnus Scott Britton. "The writing, performing and directing choices; top to bottom, everything was great."\n"Wit," the theatre and drama department's last show of the semester, tells the story of Vivian, a scholarly woman who battles ovarian cancer and must re-evaluate her life as she faces the reality of her approaching death.\nIn fact, rather than the play telling the story, Vivian tells the story herself. Casey Searles, who plays Vivian, began the show with her entrance and immediately started sizing up the audience. She didn't begin to speak until she was satisfied with it, and when she did talk, it was almost to lighten the mood. From that point on, it's hard to just watch the action and not feel that you are somehow participating in it yourself. Playwright Margaret Edson's choice for Vivian to directly address the audience creates a sense of intimacy and trust transcending the stage to the seats.\n"I thought the main actress (Casey Searles) was incredible; her performance was just incredible," student Jason Mirtl said after the show.\nSearles encompasses the intellect and, to use Vivian's own words, the "uncompromising academic standards" that shape the way the English professor approaches life and interaction with others. The humiliating situation of having a doctor who was once her student give her a pelvic exam or having to remind nurses of her name over and over stir Vivian's thoughts as she fights becoming just another patient to be studied in the hospital jungle.\nThe cast of "Wit" is relatively small with nine members, but each member has a unique relationship and impact on Vivian as she re-examines the manner in which she has spent her life. In a revealing scene where Vivian asks her doctor, Jason Posen, why he chose to study cancer, he responds with enthusiasm about the reproduction of cancer cells and research. The realization Vivian has at this point, that research is more important to Posen than people, reminds her of her own passion for her literature in contrast with creating relationships with her students.\n"It really looks at how we live our lives, how we care for others," said director Danielle Howard in an interview last week. "It shows the extremes of treating an illness before treating a person; before truly caring for a person."\nThe sporadic flow of nurses, doctors, tests and medications in and out of Vivian's new life reiterate her sense of losing identity and value as a person as she is constantly regulated by people who have no knowledge or desire to know who she really is. \n"It was a very powerful show," said junior Amanda Truxton. "It makes such a statement."\n"Wit" continues its showing every day this week at 7:30 until Dec. 10 in the Wells-Metz Theatre. For prices and ticket information, call the box office at 855-1103.