When playwright Joanna McClelland Glass sat down to write her
memories about her experiences as a young secretary to the
blue-blooded 81-year-old American icon Frances Biddle
When playwright Joanna McClelland Glass sat down to write her memories about her experiences as a young secretary to the blue-blooded 81-year-old American icon Frances Biddle – Attorney General under President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Chief American Judge of the Nuremberg trials, (to name just a few of his accomplishments) – she couldn’t have imagined the gift she imparted to the audiences that would have the joy of her words and experience.
The story is set in 1967-1968 in the office of an 1830s’ Georgetown home. Biddle and his secretary, Sarah Shorr, are trying to get his autobiography finished since with failing health and aging he feels prophetically he is nearing the end of his very full life.
Sarah has come to him, hired by his wife as an almost last resort since he is irascible and cantankerous to a point of firing or bulling all of his more mature secretaries to leave.
Sarah is young, feisty and determined and a deep form of respect and parental love evolves from the ashes of the beginning of the relationship. Jack Fletcher’s detailed delicate direction has created a true masterpiece of theater.
Glass’ words that come forth are stunning but more stunning is the exquisite performance of the two actors involved. Ken Ruta is utterly “ultimate” in the role of Biddle. His portrayal is perfection and the audience takes what they have witnessed home with them to savor a while longer after the curtain has come down.
Amanda Duarte’s Sarah Schorr is a study in exquisite sensitivity. She tackles the role with just the right amount of determination and grit to make her a heroine and not a victim. Her portrayal is flawlessness.
“Trying” opened in Chicago in the spring of 2004 then moved Off-Broadway that fall. Since then play has been produced more than 30 times with as I am told 10 more to come. It will be difficult to cast two more superb actors than Ruta and Duarte to bring this show to life. How fortunate we are to be able to experience this particular production with these particular people.
For a fulfilling evening of theater at its finest, don’t miss TheatreWorks “Trying.”
Camille Bounds is the Theatre and Arts editor for Sunrise Publications.
