Wednesday, Thursday, August 22, 23, 7:30pm
Meeting Room, St. Paul's Church, Cardo 6
$30

Trying, Playreaders - theater

“Trying”, by Joanna McClelland Glass, is an award winning, affectionate memory play based on the year she spent as a 25 year old fresh off the Canadian prairie working as secretary to the then 81 year old Francis Biddle , Attorney General of the U.S. under FDR and later Chief Judge at the Nuremberg trials. Sarah is trying her best to handle the job, but as Biddle himself puts it, they “can’t help but find each other extremely trying”. This is not a political play or a biodrama, but a new take on the odd couple genre – the May-December bitter-sweet relationship between a famous, patrician American and a young woman raised in humble circumstances in Saskatchewan.

Jack Calkins will be reading the part of Biddle, the octogenarian who, in his own words, now functions “somewhere between lucidity and senility” and who is poignantly aware that “the exit light is burning over the door, and the door is ajar”. Jessica Antonelli will read the part of the secretary, Sarah, a young woman whose marriage leaves her feeling lonely and whose pregnancy threatens her writing dreams. Dic Simandl will be handling lights and sound. Lola Smith directs.

“Trying” will be presented on Wednesday, August 22 and Thursday, August 23 at st Paul’s Episcopal Church. Peformances start at 7:30 PM or earlier if the house is full. A 30 peso donation is requested at the door.