Wit (2016 edition)

A striking and sharply funny reflection on the frailty of existence and the complex relationship between knowledge and love. Winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama A celebrated but exacting professor of metaphysical poetry, Vivian Bearing has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. It seems her life is nearing its final chapter. As she submits herself to an experimental treatment, Vivian approaches her illness with the same uncompromising rigour she brings to bear on the sonnets of John Donne. And through it all she comes to reassess her life and her work with profundity and a moving wry humour. Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Wit was first performed in 1995. It was revived at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in 2016, with Julie Hesmondhalgh.