The Doctor
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Summary
We have all been our own worst enemy at some point, blind to our preconceptions and unconscious bias, tactless in our dealings with others, entrenched so deeply in our position a crane could not pull us out. Social media, generational differences and daily interactions with a more diverse society have accentuated this dilemma.
These points are well made by the iconoclastic writer-director Robert Icke in “The Doctor,” his often engrossing if completely overstuffed, up-to-the-second adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s 1912 drama “Professor Bernhardi,” now at the Park Avenue Armory and starring a truly outstanding Juliet Stevenson.
Stevenson’s character, Dr. Ruth Wulff, could be in the illustrated dictionary under “W” for worst enemy, making her a vexing protagonist. She’s a brilliant researcher, with the barest minimum of interpersonal skills, who is the founder and leader of the Elizabeth Institute, an elite British institution devoted to curing dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Somehow (and not altogether believably), Ruth ends up treating a 14-year-old girl who develops sepsis as the result of attempting to abort her baby at home. When a Catholic priest comes in to administer last rites, at the request of the girl’s absent parents, Ruth forcibly stops him. As her doctor, she insists she has the right to decide how the girl is treated in her final moments – there is no argument the girl is dying nor that the hospital has done anything wrong in treating her -- and that while the girl is semi-conscious, she has not consented to this religious ritual.
This turns out to be a hill Ruth may literally die on, without apology or true self-reflection. The event’s aftermath is swifter and harsher than expected, both internally and externally. Ruth, a non-practicing Jew, is accused of being anti-Catholic (not to mention, anti-religious), of favoring hiring Jewish doctors at the Institute, and of complete insensitivity to blacks (such as the priest) and other minorities. Public and private outrage lead Ruth to resign her position for the good of the Institute.
But identity politics are simply beyond her. In her own words, Ruth does not believe in “groups,” even those to which she belongs, a point she repeatedly makes when she is ultimately forced to defend herself on national television. Ultimately her failure to see any other point of view than “I am a doctor and I did nothing wrong as a doctor” ends up alienating even her staunchest supporters, including a former student turned government minister and, especially, Sami, an unhappy teenager who is her sometime companion at home.
After the broadcast, things get worse, with both sound and fury that is often literally terrifying! (There’s already been plenty of loud drumming by Hannah Ledwidge, perched atop the stage), Moreover, Icke startlingly throws in a couple of other hot-button issues, such as transgenderism and suicide, on top of race, religion and abortion, Soon enough, the play starts to feel completely indigestible.
Still, watching Stevenson navigate such a difficult role is consistently astonishing. This veteran actress, who has sadly only appeared once before on a New York stage, usually stands ramrod straight, looks her detractors in the eyes, and enunciates all her words, especially “crystal clear” (which she always claims to be) as evidence of her unflinching stature. Still, there are cracks of vulnerability here and there, especially in the second act – a cracked smile, a look of bewilderment, a frown of resignation – that force us to feel some sympathy for her. And kudos to Stevenson for taking a very energetic sprint around Hildegard Bechtler’s minimal set, a moment created by Icke to showcase Ruth’s frustration.
For all of his excellent contributions, Icke is also the worst enemy when making us focus on his actual text. He has deliberately cast his excellent ensemble of British performers so that men play women, whites play blacks and vice versa (information often withheld from us for too long). And in the case of the black actress Juliet Garricks, we’re never told the exact race or gender her character Charlie – who is Ruth’s life partner. (Yes, I think it matters!)
Icke’s point in these casting decisions is presumably that we’re supposed to look past what we see; after all, that’s the whole point of “unconscious bias.” But much like in Tom Stoppard’s “Leopoldstadt” (a spiritual cousin of sorts), where we often stop listening as we try to remember who’s related to who, we often lose the play’s thread in our attempt to recall or even figure out a character’s race or gender.
I suspect, however. if any of his collaborators had suggested casting the play traditionally, Icke would have refused. This kind of avant-garde theatricality, as he has proven before, is the sort of hill Icke would happily die on – and no doctor (script doctor or otherwise) has the cure.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
https://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/the_doctor
Open/Close Dates
Opening 6/3/2023
Closing 8/19/2023
Theatre Info
Park Avenue Armory
643 Park Avenue
Neighborhood: East 60s
New York, NY 10065
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