The Doctor’s Diemma
It made quite a change for us to see a ‘traditional’ play – rather than the more modern productions we have seen recently. Almost all of the shows we have seen at the National Theatre have been new plays, but this is a play written in 1906.
The plot .. starts with Doctor Ridgeon being congratulated by his colleagues. A woman arrives and chats to the Doctors about her husband who has ‘consumption’. She is very pretty and appeals to Doctor Ridgeon to treat her husband. He agrees to meet with the couple at a dinner the following week and assess whether the man is suitable to treat. Doctor Ridgeon already has a full ward of patients so taking on another would mean getting rid of one of the other patients. There is a lot of soul searching about whether this man is worth saving.
At the dinner, the sick man (Dubedat) appears with his beautiful wife. All goes well at the dinner and the Doctors are all in agreement that Dubedat is a wonderful man (he is a talented artist) and well worth saving. After Dubedat leaves, the Doctors gradually discover that perhaps Dubedat was not quite as great as they first believed. In particular he has tricked them into lending him money and also a maid appears claiming to be his other wife. One of the Doctors also has consumption and needs treatment.
The Doctors then confront Dubedat and agree he should be treated not by Doctor Ridgeon but by another doctor. His track record is not good and as predicted, he immediately makes the patient quite a bit worse and Dubedat dies. The final scene is with the beautiful wife at the art gallery where she is selling Dubedat’s paintings, being met by Doctor Ridgeon. Despite Ridgeon’s infatuation with the beautiful woman, she is angry that he has caused the death of her husband by not handling the case himself.
This play does provoke many questions about whether certain people should be treated. Obviously, the health service has moved on since this play was written, but it is thought provoking.
Scenery – really liked the change of scene between the main Doctor’s office at the beginning to the dining room scene which rises out of the floor.
Acting – great as you’d expect.
An enjoyable play, but perhaps a little dated.
My score is 3 balloons out of 5.
katieshellard 