{"id":4573,"date":"2014-08-22T20:42:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4573"},"modified":"2014-08-24T16:22:30","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T16:22:30","slug":"george-bernard-shaw-scrutinizes-human-folly-and-romance-in-apts-the-doctors-dilemma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/?p=4573","title":{"rendered":"George Bernard Shaw scrutinizes human folly and romance in APT’s “The Doctor’s Dilemma”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"DDSir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington (John Pribyl, foreground) in full blowhard form in “The Doctor’s Dilemma.”<\/p>\n

SPRING GREEN — American Players Theatre\u2019s Saturday production of The Doctors Dilemma<\/em> saw playwright George Bernard Shaw let favorite archetypes tumble into a philosophical pecking order, where artists shone brighter than those with the means \u201cto sometimes cure and sometimes kill.\u201d Morally challenged MDs end up on the bottom with the bedpan.<\/p>\n

They know \u201cpain doesn\u2019t come until after, when they get bill.\u201d Merely the least buffoonish of the medicine men dabbles with \u201cthe doctor\u2019s dilemma\u201d — whether \u201cto kill someone, so that another might live.\u201d Shaw renders truth timelessly stark, wherein \u201c40 out of 50 people are condemned to death.\u201d So what does a doctor do to save the other 10?<\/p>\n

Further, is an \u201cartistic genius\u201d worth saving over one of those lives?<\/p>\n

While we chew on those fascinating quandaries, Shaw\u2019s loopy gaggle of Irish characters help unfurl a seamy would-be romance. Despicable Dr.Colenso Ridgeon (Brian Mani) ponders euthanizing the stricken painter, Ralph Dubedat, while lusting for his red-headed wife Jennifer\u00a0(Abbey Siegworth).<\/p>\n

\"DD<\/p>\n

Long-time American Players Theatre favorite Paul Bentzen (right), adds his inimitable comic flair to Shaw in the final year of his career.<\/em><\/p>\n

Among the other doctors adding to the chaotic fun are craggy Paul Bentzen, longtime APT comic foil, who\u2019s retiring his lean-boned jocularity this year, and especially a foppish, blonde-mopped doctor named Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington. \u201cSo many of my patients are better dead (than useful),\u201d Bonnington shrugs. \u201cMy tastes are simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or \u201cgood wine, happy endings, touching gratitude, enchanting woman, gentle nature\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the only one who conveys wit by letting his overactive mouth expose himself. It\u2019s one of Shaw\u2019s most winning ways but, in this play, might also have amounted to a bit of self-mockery, intended or not.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t help liking Shaw\u2019s moniker mongering. There\u2019s also Dr. Blenkinsop (David Daniel), who provides some of the playwright\u2019s most barbed social satire, as a physician too poor to afford his own treatment. Or Minnie Tinwell, a maid, who\u2019s caught up in the unseemly steaminess.<\/p>\n

\"DDSir Colenso Ridgeon (Brian Mani) has eyes for Mrs. Jennifer Dubedat (Abbey Siegworth), the wife of one of his patients.<\/em><\/p>\n

Despite Ridgeon’s amorous advances, Mrs. Dubedat is dedicated to her wispy, mortally-sick husband, whose corporeal remains seem 98% inspiration and 2% perspiration. What\u2019s left of Dubedat (Samuel Taylor) seems hanging from a tube of paint.<\/p>\n

However, ailing Dubedat, an “above it all” artist, is also a master money-grubber and a bigamist. Shaw finally frames things in existentially human terms.<\/p>\n

However, the playwright couldn\u2019t stop writing. Judging fate interceded where an editor didn\u2019t — an audience member actually keeled over and a medical emergency stopped the play for nearly half an hour.<\/p>\n

That merely slowed Shaw\u2019s brilliant discourse, which should\u2019ve ended with Dubedat’s death, an exquisite set piece by the company, a virtual Pieta<\/em> on stage, pure spiritual pathos. \u201cI think I\u2019ll recover after all,\u201d the artist murmurs. \u201cI suddenly went to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DD\"<\/p>\n

Ralph and Mrs. Jennifer Dubedat in Ralph’s death scene.<\/em><\/p>\n

That said, this superbly crafted production includes another stunning set piece, actually 48 of them \u2013 backstage panels of portrait paintings, ostensibly by Dubedat, of celebrated 19th<\/sup> century medical and cultural icons. These presences frame the dilemmas and shenanigans like so many witnesses to humanity’s folly, grace and endurance.<\/p>\n

\"dd5\"<\/p>\n

All photos by Carissa Dixon and copyright of American Players Theatre.<\/em><\/p>\n

________<\/p>\n

The Doctor’s Dilemma<\/em> runs throughout October 3 at American Players Theatre’s “on the hill” theater, 5950 Golf Course Rd. Spring Green, Wisconsin. For information, call 608-588-2361 or visit www.americanplayers.org<\/p>\n

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Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonnington (John Pribyl, foreground) in full blowhard form in “The Doctor’s Dilemma.” SPRING GREEN — American Players Theatre\u2019s Saturday production of The Doctors Dilemma saw playwright George Bernard Shaw let favorite archetypes tumble into a philosophical pecking … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-www-kevernacular-com"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hJWE-1bL","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4573"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4595,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4573\/revisions\/4595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevernacular.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}