This exceptionally well-crafted two-handed dramedy, Trying by Joanna McClelland Glass, is the first revival Palm Beach Dramaworks ever has presented as it gears up for its 25th anniversary next season. This new production brings the play’s emotional and humorous characteristics into sharp focus.
The plot is straightforward and is based mostly on fact when the playwright served as secretary in the late 1960’s to the retired statesman, Judge Francis Biddle, who was Roosevelt’s U.S. Attorney General and then the chief American judge at the Nuremberg war-crime trials. This is not a literal documentary of their relationship, but one that is heightened by the playwright’s imagination, clearly showing two opposites, a well-read but plain spoken Canadian prairie girl Sarah Schorr, and the Ivy League educated patrician Biddle, during the last year of his life (a fact he does not allow to be in doubt).
The two acts encapsulate their negotiating a working relationship, one that begins abrasively and grows to trust and respect and even a kind of love. It is the young and the exuberant vs. the aged and experienced. When Sarah reassures Biddle that she “understands” something, Biddle dismissively comments: “No, I don’t think you can. You’re at a disadvantage, in that I have been young, but you have never been old.”
William Hayes, PBD Producing Artistic Director, as well as the Director of this production, ably assisted by David A. Hyland, said “though it didn’t consciously dawn on me when I put together the 2023-24 season, in retrospect I believe I was drawn to Trying because it’s about something that seems to be a lost skill these days: the art of communication.” Hayes’ directs this play with a soulfulness so fitting for his choice.
Dennis Creaghan and Kelly
McCready Photo by Tim Stepien
Dennis Creaghan, the veteran of many PBD productions, portrays the superannuated Judge Francis Biddle, who is “trying” to keep up with his correspondence while writing a memoir, perpetually frustrated by a world that seems to be passing him by. His nuanced performance reveals a vulnerability that gradually emerges from a gruff shell of stubbornness and insufferable crankiness. Creaghan underscores his character’s impatience with the minor day to day foibles, such as those “tune-ups” with his wife who we never see but hear on his phone or his constant complaints about former secretaries.
There is a comic physicality to Creaghan’s performance that deeply connects with the audience. He not only knows how to deliver a comic line effectively, but with just a look can evoke laughter when Sarah speaks.
His labored movements and stuttering breaths convey his declining health, his ascendance up the stairs growing more difficult, scene by scene. He amusingly emphasizes Biddle’s displeasure with the decline of the English language (split infinitives are his bête noire) and the decline of civility over the years, and finally his deep concern about his legacy.
The playwright’s alter ego, Sarah Schorr, is poignantly played by Kelly McCready making her PBD debut. She instills a down to earth sincerity in her performance as she navigates the right balance of firmness and humor in dealing with such an irascible but august personage. And it is with humor and resilience that Sarah works her way past the armor guarding his persona.
Dennis Creaghan and Kelly
McCready Photo by Tim Stepien
She also finally reveals a personal life and even solicits understanding and sympathy from Biddle. They slowly change roles as Sarah is the one urging him on, to keep his nose to the grindstone of getting his tasks done as he slows down. (“Lace up your skates and get out on the ice!”). Symbolically she takes over his desk finally, Biddle saying “Woe is me. You’re a hard-hearted Hannah. And may I say, now that you’ve taken control of my desk, you needn’t relish the victory quite so much….You should see yourself. You look downright territorial,” “Bosh and bunkum” is Sarah’s reply.
Hayes’ direction emphasizes McCready’s youthful eagerness, “a bugger for work” and her interplay with Creaghan’s resignation to seeing “the exit sign flashing; the door ajar.” It is touching when they find common ground in the poetry of e.e. cummings. But that does not end their squabbles as Biddle notes “Truly, I don’t always have to have the last word, but not only did cummings go to Harvard, St. Vincent Millay went to Vassar.” Sarah replies “Sir, the schools they attended aren’t really relevant. Literature can be taught. Physics can be taught, talent can’t be taught” to which he replies “Touché, my dear, touché.” The exchange of their favorite books towards the end of the play marks an intimacy of equals.
The play is a memorable diorama of a time and place of civility and seriousness of purpose so seemingly lacking in the contemporary world. Hayes’ direction creates a cohesive, engaging production, wisely emphasizing the comic elements, the audience caught up in laughter. He creatively focuses on the details between scenes, particularly the more lengthy ones that involve a costume change, to engage the audience with a simple spot on a bookshelf with a radio which briefly broadcasts news of the day, establishing time intervals. This is conjoined to a lick of music of the era, a reminder that the outside world is still turning.
Scenic design by Bert Scott takes full advantage of the height of the PBD stage, displaying rafters above the stage, ones that would have been typical for a converted old horse stable. The traditional stage setting is a welcome change from the increasing use of projections and other scenic technology. It is breathtakingly inviting, the set seeming like a third character in such an intimate play. Down stage right is more attention to details, signs of the fire which almost consumed the office.
And such attention certainly pertains to the period costumes produced by Brian O’Keefe the creative resident costume designer. Many clothing changes are required by both Biddle and Sarah and O’Keefe coordinates the designs to the weather and the tone of the scene employing hats, sweaters, and overcoats while utilizing solid muted tones of fabric for the dresses and skirts worn by Sarah, appropriate suits and vests and bow ties for Biddle as well as fabricating a clever undergarment to show Sarah’s increasing pregnancy.
Lighting design by Addie Pawlick illuminates the windows to display the time of day and weather as well. Snow can drift by the window or a blue sky. Although the play takes place in one indoor space, Pawlick’s lighting captures the mood with various lamps scattered about the office as well as projecting warmth from the two floor space heaters.
Sound design is by Roger Arnold bringing in the transitional music, the radio bulletins and the playback of the Dictaphone, which records a cathartic emotional conclusion.
Trying will be appreciated by all, so well acted, directed, moving, funny, tearful, truthful. Palm Beach Dramaworks has laced its skates and produced a memorable revival. Opening night was attended by the youthful eighty seven year old playwright, Joanna McClelland Glass, whose writing has stood the test of time, especially with this production.
