Trying Invited Dress Rehearsal

This memorable play is about a strong young Canadian girl hired to be secretary to an irascible old Philadelphia aristocrat who served as Attorney General of the United States under FDR and was Chef Judge at the Nuremberg Trials. Judge Francis Biddle is trying to complete his memoirs within the year he believes he will die. Sarah follows the fourth woman who has quit or been fired from her position. The author was the secretary in the true story. According to the original production notes: “Trying 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 to find a way to communicate. This richly scripted story illustrates how two strangers, at two dramatically different places in their lives, can unexpectedly and forever influence each other.”