Trying
Francis Beverly Biddle (1886-1968) was FDR's attorney general and the American judge at the Nuremberg trials. Joanna McClelland Glass's play follows him in the last year of his life — when she became his personal secretary. It's a contest of wills. He's so used to pushing he can't stop. She refuses, then flat refuses, to be pushed any more. In Lamb's Players nicely modulated production, the contest morphs into a gentle bond between the two. Doug Waldo gives the judge flickers of warmth beneath a crabby veneer. He also traces Biddle's decline without once asking for sympathy. Kelsey Venter matches him with rising assertiveness and an ongoing sense of a chaotic life outside the office. Their byplay — deftly orchestrated by Kerry Meads — is first-rate. As is Michael McKeon's set: shelves and shelves of glassed-in law books.
Worth a try.
When
Ongoing until Sunday, September 25, 2011
Hours
| Sundays, 2pm |
| Tuesdays, 7:30pm |
| Wednesdays, 7:30pm |
| Thursdays, 7:30pm |
| Fridays, 8pm |
| Saturdays, 4pm & 8pm |