About This Show
Trying, by Joanna McClelland Glass, presents a comic and touching portrait of generational reconciliation based on the life of Francis Biddle, Attorney General under FDR. This uplifting, life-affirming play unfolds in a fascinating landscape of politics, history and literature, as two strikingly different personalities bridge the gap of age and social class, and an undying friendship emerges.
The play is set in 1967 when Biddle is 81 years old and trying to put his life in order. Elegant, but sharply cantankerous, he struggles with the inevitability of his age and failing health. His wife has forced upon him a new secretary named Sarah, who is all of 25 years old, and the two struggle — sometimes comically, sometimes dramatically — to find a way to communicate. This richly scripted play illustrates how two strangers, at two dramatically different points in their lives, can unexpectedly and forever influence each other.