Trying
by Joanna McClelland Glass

Name: Trying
Brand: Joanna McClelland Glass
SKU: 9780573662812
Rating: 3.77 (7 reviews)

Highlights

Female

Male

1960sInterior SetPeriod Costumes

Synopsis

Trying is a two-character play based on the author’s experience during 1967-1968 when she worked for Francis Biddle at his home in Washington, D.C.

Judge Biddle had been Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt.

After the war, President Truman named him Chief Judge of the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg.

The play is about a young Canadian girl and an old Philadelphia aristocrat “trying” to understand each other in what Biddle knows is the final year of his life.

Press Reviews

"Trying is a portrait of generational reconciliation. It is enormously bracing theatre."
— New York Daily News

"Trying is a beautifully written, delicate and engaging two-hander."
— Toronto Globe and Mail

Characters

Character	Gender	Age	Description
Sarah Schorr A twenty-five-year-old girl who has been hired by Mrs. Biddle to be the judge’s secretary. She is a direct, plain-spoken, pleasant girl, originally from the prairie province of Saskatchewan.	female	—	A twenty-five-year-old girl who has been hired by Mrs. Biddle to be the judge’s secretary. She is a direct, plain-spoken, pleasant girl, originally from the prairie province of Saskatchewan.
Judge Biddle An eighty-one-year-old, once brilliant man who was Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After a long and illustrious career he now functions, as he says, “somewhere between lucidity and senility.” He is the aristocratic scion of an old Main Line Philadelphia family.	male	—	An eighty-one-year-old, once brilliant man who was Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After a long and illustrious career he now functions, as he says, “somewhere between lucidity and senility.” He is the aristocratic scion of an old Main Line Philadelphia family.