Wit: A Play Spiral-Bound | March 29, 1999

Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, now the basis for a new HBO film starring Emma Thompson and directed by Mike Nichols

When it was first performed in New York in 1998, Wit was a revelation to critics and audiences alike. In writing a play about terminal cancer and metaphysical poetry-and exploring the mysteries of both through the central character of Vivian Bearing, a highly accomplished but emotionally remote scholar who is forced to reassess her life during her harrowing stint in a cancer ward-Margaret Edson crafted a work that was as intellectually challenging as it was emotionally immediate. Called " an original and urgent work of art¿among the finest plays of the decade" by Donald Lyons in The Wall Street Journal, it also deeply affected theatergoers, who found the play's wit, passion, and unsentimental empathy combined to create a rare catharsis.

Produced by HBO Films, Wit is now the basis for a major new film for television, starring the Academy Award-winning actress Emma Thompson as well as Eileen Atkins, Christopher Lloyd, and Harold Pinter and directed by Mike Nichols from a screenplay by Mike Nichols and Emma Thompson. Set to air nationwide in March 2001, it is sure to move a new audience, as television viewers discover this extraordinary work brilliantly adapted to a new medium.