Pulitzer Winning Wit Premieres in West End

Veteran American stage actress Kathleen Chalfant will make her West End debut in April when Margaret Edson's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Wit transfers to the Vaudeville Theatre. The British premiere opens on 3 April 2000, previews from 27 March.

The production is directed by Leigh Silverman, recreating the work of Derek Anson Jones who died after the play's American premiere in New York in September 1998.

Chalfant originated the role of Dr Vivian Bearing, the English literature professor who is suddenly struck down - physically, mentally and emotionally - by cancer. She has won numerous plaudits and awards, including an OBIE, for her New York performance and is currently performing the play in Los Angeles. Chalfant is also well known to New York theatre audiences for her Tony-nominated role in Angels in America.

Wit is Edson's first play, based in part on her experiences working at an AIDS inpatient centre. Now a kindergarten teacher in Atlanta, Georgia, Edson says she does not intend to write another play.

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