A Noise Within Presents presents The Doctor's Dilemma

Oct 7, 2012
The Doctor's Dilemma

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, continues its 2012-13 season in its state-of-the-art Pasadena home with The Doctor's Dilemma, a rarely performed comic and incisive indictment of both the medical profession and the artistic sensibility by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Damaso Rodriguez, the show runs from tonight, October 20 through Sunday, November 25 with previews beginning on Saturday, October 13. There will be a "Pay What You Can" performance on Thursday, October 18.

A compelling and profoundly engaging fusion of comedy, tragedy and romance that defies categorization, The Doctor's Dilemma, set in 1906, focuses on Sir Colenso Ridgeon, a fashionable and egotistical surgeon who has discovered a new TB inoculation and must decide who should be saved: a kindly colleague who serves the poor or an extremely talented but unscrupulous young artist with a beautiful and alluring young wife whom the doctor allows to cloud his moral judgment?

Although written more than a century ago, the sublime dramatic premise of The Doctor's Dilemma has uncanny relevance to today's health care debate. "The play is very funny while creating a dual platform for discussion about the power of a doctor to 'play God,' and the consequences of an artist living without regard to others," Rodriguez explains. "The physician in the play is placed in the position to decide which of two patients, both without means to pay for their own care, will live or die. It will likely prompt audiences to examine the motives of the medical profession, insurance companies, and how we came as a society to accept a health care system still driven in large part by financial gain."

The cast features Geoff Elliott (Sir Colenso Ridgeon), Deborah Strang (Emmy), Apollo Dukakis (Sir Patrick Cullen), Freddy Douglas (Cutler Walpole), Robertson Dean (Sir Ralph Bloomfield-Bonington), Jason Dechert (Louis Dubedat), Rafael Goldstein (Redpenny) and Jules Willcox (Jennifer Dubedat).