Even the greats of government service will eventually succumb to the physical and mental ravages of age. So it is with Francis Biddle, the former attorney general under Franklin Roosevelt and chief American judge of the Nuremberg war trials. By the time we meet him in Joanna McClelland Glass’ biographical play Trying, he is 81 and a decrepit shell of his former self.
That is when he meets 25-year-old Sarah Schorr — a fictional version of Glass — the latest in a line of personal secretaries hired to handle his mail, help put his memoirs in order and try to deal with his irascible personality. It is a trying task indeed, but over time, the duo begins to rub off on one another as is often the case in these odd couple tales.
As she relates in the play, Glass moved to the nation’s capital from rural Saskatchewan, Canada, in the late 1960s, a time marked by the upheaval of the Vietnam War and political assassinations, events happening outside of Biddle’s office cocoon which we hear about on occasion on his radio.
Trying is not the most profound play you are likely to encounter, but it does contain a juicy role in Biddle, which surely explains why Palm Beach Dramaworks has returned to it after first producing the work in early 2007. Back then the part was assumed by Peter Haig and now it is embodied by the similarly remarkable Dennis Creaghan.
As he frequently asserts, Biddle believes he is in the final year of his life. And as he wearily limps about the Georgetown office that Bert Scott has designed with care and attention to detail, it is easy to accept that the end is indeed near for this old soul. Creaghan, a longtime Dramaworks veteran, creates an impressive portrait of Biddle full of bluster and irascibility. He is a stickler for order, for having things his way and for correct word usage, even as he realizes he is losing his ability to function.
Into his world, challenging his very existence, comes Schorr, a former advertising copywriter, a young woman with her own stubborn streak, determined to succeed at the difficult work situation in which she has landed. There is a predictability to the way Schorr and Biddle first clash, then develop a begrudging affection for each other over time. Perhaps that is how it really did happen, but it feels rather formulaic as it plays out over the course of the evening.
As Schorr, Kelly McCready makes her Dramaworks debut, capably handling what is inevitably a supporting role to the more compelling Biddle. While the play’s focus is on him, her character feels underwritten, as when she expresses her unhappiness in her marriage, but that potentially fertile tangent is soon dropped and remains unexplored. Still, the inclusion of the Schorr character puts the emphasis on her evolving relationship with Biddle and saves us from what might have been a more static one-man play.
Nevertheless, at a running time of two-and-three-quarter hours, it is hard not to grow impatient with Trying. First written in 2004, the year it opened off-Broadway, Trying has become a staple on the regional theater circuit. So it is surely too late to complain that it feels about 30 minutes too long or that director William Hayes’ affection for the script is rather puzzling. But as the current production demonstrates, it does contain a richly drawn portrait of Biddle and a touching rendering of him by Creaghan.
TRYING, Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., West Palm Beach. Through Sunday, June 9. $89. 561-514-4042.