Wit

“I am a professor of seventeenth-century poetry, specializing in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne.” 

The play opens with Dr. Vivian Bearing speaking directly to the audience. Her introduction is direct and to the point, just as she is. This moment quickly grounds the audience in the story and establishes Vivian’s character. 

“I have been asked ‘How are you feeling today?’ while I was throwing up into a plastic washbasin. I have been asked as I was emerging from a four-hour operation with a tube in every orifice…I am waiting for the moment when someone asks me this question and I am dead.” 

In this statement, Vivian—who is still speaking to the audience—sets up the tension between words and their meaning. As a literature professor, Vivian cares about language and semantics. But throughout the play, words are stripped of meaning and instead used as platitudes. That is the case here, where the question of how Vivian is feeling directly contrasts with the visible reality of her illness. Those asking are not actually concerned with Vivian’s deteriorating condition; rather, people continue to ask her the same, comfortable question to avoid facing the uncomfortable reality of her situation. 

“I’ve got less than two hours. Then: curtain.” 

Vivian tells the audience that she is dying of cancer, and her time is running out. This literary technique is often referred to as a frame story: an author begins the book, play, or poem at its end, then uses flashbacks to fill in the blanks for the reader. Edson’s use of the frame story changes the focus of the play.