Wayne State Theatre will be performing Margaret Edson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Wit” this week.

Vivian Bearing (Hope Pedersen), a demanding and uncompromising professor of 17th century English poetry specializing in the holy sonnets of John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced (stage 4) metastatic ovarian cancer.

Being an academic, she treats the news with a certain matter-of-factness much like she would her own research.

Her medical team–the renowned Dr. Harvey Kelekian (Nathan Seaman) and an ex-student of hers, Dr. Jason Posner (Zachery Halsey)–do treat her solely like a research experiment, with a “live-at-all-cost” mentality. The doctors recommend an experimental treatment of aggressive chemotherapy, to which Bearing agrees.

Bearing decides to go through the treatment alone. But as her treatment progresses, she wishes she had more caring human interaction from people who see her as a person and not just a research experiment.

Throughout the play, Bearing is not only fighting cancer, but learning to accept kindness from those around her.

The play will be performed in the Black Box Theatre in the Fine Arts Building today through Saturday at 7 p.m. and on Sunday at 2 p.m.

General admission is $5. WSC students, faculty and staff are admitted free.

For photos from the production, check our website next week.