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Margaret Edson ‘s Wit begins with Vivian talking to the audience: she is currently a patient in a major research hospital undergoing treatment for advanced ovarian cancer, and she knows the prognosis is not good. “The Faerie Queene this is not,” she advises, alluding to Edmund Spenser’s long poem, a tribute to the glory of Queen Elizabeth and her virtues. Prior to her hospitalization, she was Professor Bearing, teacher and scholar, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne. Vivian takes the audience to various scenes in the past and present that illuminate her achievements in the world of scholarship and show what happens to her as she is treated with aggressive chemotherapy for eight months. What the audience sees is what Vivian herself perceives, and so reality is skewed according to her experience.

As Vivian undergoes a series of tests and procedures in the sterile hospital environment, she takes the audience back twenty years to an encounter with her graduate school professor, E.M. Ashford, after which she decides that nothing will stop her from becoming a top-notch scholar and that her chosen area of study will be one of the toughest, the poetry of John Donne. She also recalls the moment in her childhood with her father when she first fell in love with reading and with words. While in her hospital bed, Vivian recalls her life in the classroom, where she was known as a spell-binding lecturer on Donne and a demanding teacher of literature. Ironically, one of her doctors, Jason, is a former student and now a budding researcher in his own profession, having been inspired by Vivian’s uncompromising scholarship.

As the chemotherapy weakens Vivian and the doctors seem to take less and less notice of her pain and diminished capacity, she comes to rely on her nurse, Susie, who sees her suffering and treats her with kindness. She helps Vivian decide on a DNR order (Do Not Resuscitate). As she dies, having learned much about life, Vivian is at peace with herself and her mortality.
*This programme contains nudity scenes

Playwright: Margaret Edson
Translation: Sarina Cheung
Translation: Chan Man Bun, Angus
Director: Tang Wai-kit
Main Cast: Lo Koon-lan, Pak Yiu-charn Patrick, May Fu, Chan Kin-ho Angus, Ng Fung-ming, Shum Kwan-yi, Sarina Cheung, Leung Chak-yu, Tong Ngai-ting

Wit
We Draman Group
Date: 21-24 January, 2016
Venue: HK Cultural Centre, Studio Theatre
Tickets: $240, $160 from Urbtix
More info:
21-23 January – 8pm
23-24 January – 2:30pm
In Cantonese