![\"(l](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Wit-1-605.jpg\")
<\/a>Vivian Bearing (Deborah Gilmour Smyth) is a 50-year-old scholar and teacher who has devoted her entire specific and ordered life to words, the explication of words and their punctuation, especially as they pertain to 17th century metaphysical poet John Donne (1572-1631).<\/p>\n
Much to her surprise, Vivian has inoperable, advanced stage metastatic uterine cancer. She enrolls in a clinical trial and endures eight grueling months of chemotherapy. An only child, Vivian has no family and no friends she cares be notified, thank you very much. How does such a woman, accustomed to living in her head, experience such an event? Courageously, and the only way she knows how, by explicating it. That may seem clinical; the cumulative experience of the 90-minute work is not. It is a journey that we all take and many have witnessed.<\/p>\n
One of San Diego\u2019s finest actors, Deborah Smyth, is directed by her husband, Lamb\u2019s Producing Artistic Director Robert Smyth, and surrounded by an extraordinary ensemble comprising Lamb\u2019s associate artists and company members.<\/p>\n
Jim Chovick portrays oncologist Harvey Kelekian, M.D. and, in one of the play\u2019s most luminous scenes, Vivian\u2019s father, who listens as his child discovers poetry for the first time, reading him Beatrix Potter\u2019s \u201cThe Tale of the Floppy Bunny.\u201d Associate Artist Cynthia Gerber portrays Vivian\u2019s nurse, Susie Monahan, and Sylvia M\u2019Lafi Thompson plays Vivian\u2019s early mentor and tormentor, E.M. Ashford. Jason Heil has moments of well-timed comic ineptness and bewilderment as Dr. Jason Posner. His gauche pelvic exam is one of the highlights of this magnificent work. Yes, Edson\u2019s play is funny, too; hence, its title \u201cWit,\u201d which is one of Donne\u2019s overriding characteristics.<\/p>\n
These moments of comic relief are so needed and expertly applied by director Smyth without skewing the rhythm and tone \u2013 surely a miraculous feat of magic.<\/p>\n
Bryan Barbarin, Kaja Amado Dunn, and Catie Grady play additional hospital staff. Scenic designer Mike Buckley\u2019s hospital world consists of miles and miles of easily moved sheer curtains, a few props, and projections, the latter two contributed by Michael McKeon. Jeanne Barnes Reith is costume designer, Nate Parde, the lighting designer, and Jon Lorenz, the sound designer and composer.<\/p>\n
Lovers of language and excellence are urged to see the awesome Deborah Smyth in Lamb\u2019s Players\u2019 luminous production of Edson\u2019s only play. The playwright (b. 1961) lives and teaches middle school in Atlanta.<\/p>\n
\u201cWit\u201d continues at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 4 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through November 17 at Lamb\u2019s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave., Coronado. Tickets are $22 – $52 through lambsplayers.org or 619-437-6000.<\/p>\n
Charlene Baldridge moved to San Diego from the Chicago area in 1962. She\u2019s been writing about the arts since 1979, and has had her features, critiques, surveys and interviews included in various publications ever since. Her book \u201cSan Diego, Jewel of the California Coast\u201d (Northland Publishing) is currently available in bookstores. She can be reached at charb81@gmail.com.<\/i><\/i><\/p>\n
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Charlene Baldridge | Downtown Theater Critic A gregarious man in the Coronado restaurant October 11 nattered at the woman at the next table, a stranger. \u201cWe\u2019re here to see a play,\u201d he said, indicating the large group of which he was a part. \u201cIt\u2019s opening next door. It\u2019s called \u2018Wit\u2019. That\u2019s all I know about […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":236582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"\u2018Wit\u2019 \u2013 an experience not to be missed","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}