‘Wit’ Remains True, Strong and Buoyant

Through no fault of its author, Margaret Edson’s “Wit” has acquired a burdensome load of praise, from the Pulitzer Prize on down. This leads to inflated expectations, which leads to audiences variously hype-blinded or skeptical or cowed by all the acclaim.

Yet “Wit” shrugs off that burden, just by being the sharp, oddly buoyant work it is.

The Geffen Playhouse edition of Edson’s play, virtually a replica of the show as seen off-Broadway, marks the final effort of director Derek Anson Jones, who died Jan. 17 at the age of 38. Jones brought snap and rhythmic variety to “Wit.” And he helped bring out the best in a celebrated performance.

As Vivian Bearing, a dying 17th century poetry scholar enraptured by John Donne’s “Holy Sonnets,” Kathleen Chalfant is exquisite. Outside the realm of Judi Dench-dom, no recent performance in the American theater has provoked such widespread devotion. Playing a fearsomely smart professor, a woman waging a valiant losing battle with cancer, Chalfant lets us discover the character for ourselves. It’s an unusually subtle first-rate performance, free from what could be called Oscar-worthy moments--the opposite, in other words, of Shirley MacLaine having a fit in “Terms of Endearment.”

Like the Donne sonnets, “Wit” is a structurally playful examination of serious matters, life and death, proud or otherwise. Bearing greets us at the beginning in a hospital gown and a red baseball cap, wheeling her IV pole downstage. Scenic designer Myung Hee Cho’s abstracted university hospital setting is carved into various playing spaces by a noisy, rapid pull of white curtains.

She has been diagnosed as having stage four metastatic ovarian cancer. Her doctor, Kelekian (Walter Charles, spot-on in his fussy acumen), recommends an experimental regimen of chemotherapy. Bearing accepts the challenge. Bearing draws attention to her role in the play at hand. “I’ve got less than two hours,” she says, readying us for her final seminar. “Then: curtain.”

“Wit” reveals a flinty mind and spirit in enforced reflection. Flashbacks to Bearing’s teaching days show an uncompromising textual critic and forceful teacher of Donne’s sonnets. Her past students include Dr. Kelekian’s No. 2, oncology researcherDr. Jason Posner (Alec Phoenix). In her doctors’ obsessive focus on cancer, Bearing sees a reflection of her own obsession with Donne. As her treatment’s side effects become worse, Bearing recognizes the value of the human element, personified by her nurse, Susie Monahan (Paula Pizzi).

Edson’s play can impart its lessons with a heavy hand. The 1995 world premiere, staged at South Coast Repertory with Megan Cole in the role of Bearing, went for too much surface conflict and tension, at odds with an essentially cool character. (Cole didn’t seem to be playing a Donne scholar; she seemed to be playing a 19th century acting teacher.)

The scenes featuring the insensitive Dr. Posner can bring out the worst in even a skilled actor. Phoenix overplays the tic-laden restlessness; he’s overfilling each non-verbal moment in ways he didn’t off-Broadway, and the same is true of Pizzi’s somewhat arch Susie. Also, though Chalfant finesses the conceit beautifully, Edson allows Bearing one too many moments of textual self-awareness, as when, dying, she says: “My next line is supposed to be something like this. . . .”

You notice these things, because they’re surrounded by writing that achieves so much so honestly. Edson’s triumph, above all, is simple. “Wit” gives us a chronicle of a very, very bad experience that we know from the start will not end well. Yet it’s a play of small encounters, small revelations and interactions, that add up to a complex life story. It’s “universal,” certainly, but Edson has written specifically and eloquently of an educator’s life. It’s pure poetic justice that, in Chalfant’s performance, the most moving line is a simple statement of fact: “I’m a teacher.”

Even with a messily handled “ER”-style climax, even with some obviousness in the supporting ranks (though Anne Pitoniak is charming as Bearing’s mentor), the Geffen’s “Wit” affords a good look at a very good work. Chalfant is never better than when Bearing’s toughness gives suddenly away to the ache and terror and loneliness underneath. Nothing is overstressed. Everything is true. Chalfant may not have “made” Edson’s play, but it’s deeply unlikely anyone will ever derive more from the role at its center.

* “Wit,” Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 7:30 p.m.; Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 and 8:30 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends March 5. $20-$42 ($10 student rush tickets 15 minutes prior to curtain). (310) 208-5454. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Kathleen Chalfant: Vivian Bearing

Walter Charles: Harvey Kelekian/

Mr. Bearing

Alec Phoenix: Jason Posner

Paula Pizzi: Susie Monahan

Anne Pitoniak: E.M. Ashford

Christian Anderson, Jose Mercado, Holly Ricciuti, Cheri Smith: Lab Technicians

Written by Margaret Edson. Directed by Derek Anson Jones. Set by Myung Hee Cho. Costumes by Ilona Somogyi. Lighting by Michael Chybowski. Original music and sound by David Van Tieghem. Production stage manager Katherine Lee Boyer.