Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Margaret Edson will discuss her play Wit and participate in a dramatic reading on Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. at Hutchison School’s Wiener Theater, 1740 Ridgeway Road. The event is sponsored by Methodist Healthcare Foundation and benefits the construction of the Methodist Hospice Residence.

Edson was inspired to write Wit, a play about a literary scholar diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, while working in the cancer ward of a research hospital. Here she witnessed the dilemmas that face both the patient and the patient's medical team in dealing with acute disease, the application of radical medical treatment, and the effects of these treatments on the patient's life, as well as the constant awareness of the possibility of imminent death. The main character in Edson's play has ovarian cancer, a type of cancer that, if it is not caught in the initial stages, few women survive. In order for research doctors to find a cure, they must experiment with different kinds of drug treatments. Edson's play looks at the ethics behind this need and the consequences of this need upon the patient.

Although the topic of the play sounds grim, Edson says that the play is about love and knowledge, grace and redemption. She uses the word wit not so much to convey a sense of comedy (although there are several moments of intelligent humor) but rather to reflect the natural ability to perceive and understand. In order to convey all these concepts, Edson says, she had to write about their opposites. "So the play is about miscommunication and misunderstanding and posturing and arrogance." During an interview with Charles Osgood on CBS News' Sunday Morning, Edson states, "It's about everything that's the opposite of grace and kindness."

The play is a play about death and dying, but what seems to have impressed audiences is the lesson the play presents for the living. The London Times sums up the play as being "moving, funny and wise about the limitations of the intellect and the value of the heart." Wit has been produced all over America as well as in international theaters.

“The main character becomes very sick, but the author has something else in mind,” Edson said. “We’ll take turns sparring with the dramatic character Vivian Bearing and her Wit, and as we present scenes and comment on them, the struggle for life will become a stroll into grace.”

Admission to the event will be a $10 donation to Methodist Hospice Residence. Methodist is raising funds for a hospice residence where all patients can live with dignity and grace at the end of their lives. So often, patients suffer from complex disease symptoms or do not have anyone to provide care. For these patients, a residential hospice provides the solution.

For reservations or more information, call Methodist Healthcare Foundation at (901) 516-0500.

Edson will be in Memphis as part of Faith, Health and the Arts: Making the Connection sponsored by the Church Health Center, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Memphis Theological Seminar and St. John’s United Methodist Church. She will be the featured luncheon speaker on April 18 at Lindenwood Christian Church discussing her play as part of a daylong event of workshops to engage medical professionals, pastors, chaplains, artists and others in a discussion of use of the arts -- specifically storytelling -- in healing, and how different disciplines can work together to best care for the whole person.