Vivian Bearing, a brilliant and uncompromising professor of English Literature who has spent years specialising in the Holy Sonnets of John Donne, has been diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. She agrees to undergo an experimental chemotherapy treatment that, although not guaranteed to save her, will provide excellent research data for the future of oncology.

Once the teacher, she is now the student, learning everything she can about the disease and constantly at the mercy of the doctors in authority. In a final acceptance of her fate, Professor Bearing institutes a Do Not Resuscitate order, finally succumbing to death, which she has studied so fastidiously in the teaching of Donne’s work.

Wit (winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Drama) is a poignant and humorous look at life, death poetry and compassion.

“A masterpiece of economy… Pfeiffer yet again proves his versatility as a director” The Australian (If it Bleeds 2012)

“Montgomery Griffith’s performance is outstanding; like her wit and intellect, the virtuosity of her superb physical and vocal skills excavate the unmediated rawness of feeling.” – Alison Croggon (Sapho 2010)

See the trailer for Wit featuring Jane Montgomery Griffiths here

Generously supported by The Pratt Foundation and Monash Academy of Performing Arts