W;t

By Margaret Edson

“The Pulitzer-winning drama from 1998 asks a lot from its lead actress, not the least of which is a shaved head. Alexandra Main has the honors in John Gawlik's production, and she is very good…a nurse strokes her face with a damp cloth, and Vivian the Barbarian silently gazes up like an infant grateful for the touch…you'd have to be made of tougher stuff than skin and bone to resist the emotion generated by her performance.”

                                                                                                                                                Nina Metz, Chicago Tribune

Highly Recommended! “Demanding, it's the kind of role from which tour-de-force performances come. Alexandra Main, star of John Gawlik's superb revival for Chicago's Gift Theatre, delivers such a performance… To watch the disease diminish her - to see Main's jaw clench, her wide eyes fill with unshed tears and her wit desert her - is heartbreaking to behold. And the point at which the pain overwhelms her, makes for one of the most gut-wrenching moments I've seen onstage in some time.”

Barbara Vitello, Daily Herald

4 Stars! “Gawlik’s searing but subtle rendering of Vivian’s journey from control to “corny,” as she puts it—a journey that’s endured alone, except for her breezy, gentle nurse (Carini)—dances on the edge of devastating. Moments of agonized pain are tempered by wondrously detailed performances from a skilled cast (particularly Mihlfried’s consummate turn as an equally egotistic and awkward research fellow) that supports Main’s comprehensively, courageously etched portrait of Vivian’s unflagging and cynical wit. Avoiding her piercing gaze is as impossible as evading, as Donne puts it, “gluttonous death.” Gift has crafted not an instructive tale of how to live life—Vivian is often downright unlikable—but, from its acidic beginning to its incandescent end, a story about vitality and control, and the loss—unavoidable for all of us—of both.

Megan Powell, Time Out Chicago

"...Margaret Edson's brilliant piece--about a woman with ovarian cancer, confronting (and occasionally denying) her doubts, fears, and humiliation--avoids mawkish tear jerking. John Gawlik's staging for the Gift Theatre always bring out the colors in Edson's crystalline writing…this remains a smart, unsentimental take on confronting the end of the mortal coil."

Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader

Highly Recommended! "...Exhilarating and dense, this work of art functions simultaneously on many levels. Fundamentally, it’s a most sincere, deeply human tearjerker—full of contradictions, sadness and hope. When performed well, Edson’s words can make you cry despite her protagonist’s insistence that you shouldn’t. Whether or not you wipe tears from your cheeks, nobody who experiences The Gift’s “Wit” will leave the theater unmoved."

Web Behrens, Chicago Free Press

Recommended! "...In a sterling performance by Alexandra Main, Vivian is the primary focus of the story and won my heart over as she unfolded her history since the discovery of Cancer. She greets us with some explanation about this question and more, clad in a hospital gown and walking along the stage with an IV on a wheel rack alongside her."

Al Bresloff, Epoch Times

Recommended! "...In writing the 95-minute show, Edson made a number of gutsy choices, in effect showing trust in her audience's intellectual capacity. She broke the fourth wall, allowing Vivian to address the audience and served up an academic stew of medical terminology and 17th century metaphysical poetry. Most significantly, she wrote a witty play about cancer. Any of these choices could have derailed 'W;t,' but Edson's command of her material, not to mention director Jown Gawlik's capable execution, kept the play smoothly on track."

                                                                                                                                                Centerstage