Playwright: George Bernard Shaw
At: Writers' Theatre, in Glencoe
Phone: (847) 242-6000; $45-$50
Runs through: July 18
'Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?' asked Macbeth of his physician. Shaw answers the question by presenting us with a bevy of medical men exhibiting decidedly unhealthy attitudes. Dr. Ralph Bonington's absolute faith in his own judgment gives him license to dispense medications at random, and Dr. Cutler Walpole's obsession with panapathogens leads him to prescribe unnecessary surgery. More dangerous still, however, is Dr. Colenso Ridgeon, whose experimental procedures spell certain recovery for the two afflicted men petitioning for admission to his clinic. There is only room for one, you see, and Ridgeon proposes to choose his candidate based on the invalid's moral character—shall it be the fellow doctor who serves in the slums, or the brilliant artist whose death would render his extremely attractive wife a widow?
Makes our own healthcare system, where you get what you pay for, seem safe by comparison, huh? Shaw's solution to the corruption of self-interest is to eliminate private practice and replace it with a government-regulated program of social services. But if that notion hits too close to home for patrons of this Writers Theatre production, there is still the title argument to ponder. Who IS worth saving? The altruist who saves lives, but is helpless to improve the quality of those lives? The genius who brings beauty into those lives, but whose lifestyle promotes social instability? And who among us is fit to judge?
Director Michael Halberstam has assembled a company of veteran players, led by Kevin Gudahl as the ambivalent Ridgeon and Karen Janes Woditsch as the prize he covets, flanked by such worthies as Bradley Mott and Jonathan Weir as, respectively, the complacent Bonington and Walpole, along with Steve Hinger as the 'deserving' patient and Scott Parkinson as his 'undeserving' counterpart. Robert Scogin contributes a sage presence as Sir Patrick Cullen, Shaw's raisonneur, and Janet Ulrich Brooks steals her every scene as Ridgeon's capable housekeeper.
The players sometimes linger over Shaw's savory prose a second or two more than entirely necessary, stretching the show's running time to just under three hours. The results are a feast for the intellect, nevertheless, delighting the senses while providing plenty of fodder on which to ruminate afterward.
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