Date: Fri 06-Mar-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Mercy-Kevorkian-Long-Wharf

Full Text:

(rev "A Question of Mercy" @Long Wharf)

Theatre Review--

Mercifully, More Is Left Unsaid Than Said At Long Wharf

(with cut)

By Julie Stern

NEW HAVEN -- Dr Jack Kevorkian, who has just deposited the remains of his

umpteenth "client" on the doorsteps of a Michigan hospital, may well be a

ghoul. To see him being interviewed is to sense a morbid personal power trip

as the ulterior motive behind his public agenda of upholding sick peoples'

"right to die."

However, his steady supply of new applicants, and the extent to which popular

opinion supports those juries which have found him innocent of murder,

indicates the depth of public concern with a difficult moral and psychological

issue: while modern medicine can work miracles of many kinds, the fact remains

some illnesses are incurable. Thus, some people face the prospect of an

existence -- often a protracted one -- whose quality is wretched, because of

pain, helplessness, and the inability to continue doing any of the things that

gave their particular lives meaning.

Should such individuals, if they choose, have the right to bring an end to

their suffering? Furthermore, do they have the right to ask their doctor, as a

final act of mercy, to grant them an "easeful death" by performing the kind of

quick and painless euthanasia regularly practiced by veterinarians and Dutch

physicians?

These are among the heavy questions tackled in David Rabe's troubling drama, A

Question of Mercy , at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre until March 15. The

story is based on an essay by author-physician Richard Seltzer, who recounts

his own actual experiences. Question of Mercy deals with a retired surgeon who

is approached by a casual acquaintance, whose lover is suffering from an

advanced case of AIDS.

"I can tell you're sympathetic," the acquaintance, Thomas, says to the

physician, Dr Chapman. "Would you help us? Anthony wants to die. Knowing that

committing suicide by barbiturate overdose is a difficult and chancy task, he

is terrified of botching the attempt and waking up in a hospital.

"Would you be willing to stand by, and intervene, if necessary, with a lethal

injection?"

Unlike Brian Clark's more polemical work Whose Life Is It Anyway , which took

place in a hospital and focused on the conflict between a doctor's commitment

to save lives and the responsibility to ease suffering, Rabe's play hinges on

the fear of being caught. It also introduces the paranoid lengths to which the

characters go to protect themselves, at the expense of the patient.

A Question of Mercy is a troubling play. The graphic portrayal of the various

symptoms and consequences of full-blown AIDS is harrowing. The realistic

descriptions of just how difficult it actually is to commit suicide with

pills, and the mini course on how to do it right -- delivered by the doctor --

is certainly disturbing.

The biggest problem, though, lies in the characters themselves. As with

Clark's work, the protagonist, Anthony, beautifully portrayed in New Haven by

Seth Gilliam, is so charming and sympathetic the audience -- and the doctor --

is truly torn between the need to respect his wishes and the desire to keep

this wonderful, vibrant human being alive.

On the other hand, Thomas, the platonic friend and confidante Susannah, and

even Dr Chapman are all either so flawed or so sketchily realized, the

audience is just perplexed. The problem is not so much over what is the right

thing to do, but why these people are behaving like this (to a point where

during one recent performance an audience member was heard to mumble, "Why

don't you take the pills?!")

The problem with the New Haven narrative is not the acting, nor even Doug

Hughes' directing, both of which seem on target. As Thomas, Richard Kehins is

simply a study in neurotic ambivalence, of the most annoying sort.

Having recruited the doctor and orchestrated a scenario wherein Anthony will

find peace surrounded by those who love him, Thomas abruptly reverses course

and declares that none of them can be present.

As Dr Chapman, David Chandler is a man who seems to be in singular need of the

admonition "Get a life!" Quite young to be retired, the doctor is a man of

seemingly no interests or enthusiasms, nor any close relationships. He

mentions a nephew who once gave him an overcoat, but that's it.

There is an undertone of attraction between the doctor and Anthony, suggesting

perhaps the doctor will examine his sexuality. It could also be Anthony is

only exerting his personality in an attempt to charm, or manipulate, the good

doctor into agreeing to help.

As such it works, but it also arouses jealousy in Thomas, who calls in

Susannah as an emotional ally. Beautiful, strident and self-righteous,

Susannah is a total pain, making it hard to see why Thomas and Anthony would

ever have chosen her as their boon companion.

As theatre, A Question of Mercy is fairly stimulating. Unfortunately for the

playwright, it also leaves audiences prone to talk more about that was not

said in the play than what was.

Performances continue through March 15. Tickets are $22 to $39 each. Call the

Long Wharf box office, 222 Sargeant Drive, for curtain times or reservations.