by Lina Zeldovich on July 13, 2010
To Mercy or Not to Mercy
by Lina Zeldovich
Thomas (Alex Cranmer) and Anthony (Tim Spears) have been together for years, but
now they are struggling with Anthony’s grueling battle with AIDS. Exhausted from
treatments that don’t work, medicines that have more side effects than help, Anthony
decides to take his own life as opposed to prolonging his slow painful death. Together
with their friend Susanah (Martha Newman), the couple approaches a retired Dr.
Roberta Chapman (Paula Langton), who had recently stopped practicing medicine after
having an anxiety attack during a routine surgery, asking her for medical help with their
controversial endeavor. Appalled at first, Dr. Chapman starts having second thoughts
when she realizes the degree of pain and agony Anthony is in. Yet, suicide is far from
simple: you take a dosage too small – you sleep it off, you gobble up too many pills – you
throw up. And if your weakened intestinal walls can’t absorb enough barbiturates, you
don’t die.
Slowly but surely, Dr. Chapman finds herself absorbed into Anthony’s ultimate
undertaking, meticulously organized like an important business affair. She agrees to
consult him on the amount of sedative he has to take, then how to take then “properly”
until she is pushed to say “yes” to injecting him with morphine – but only if necessary at
the final stage of his project. She even ends up playing a shrink to tearful Thomas, who
can’t decide whether he wants to hold Anthony’s hand during his final moments or run
far away and stick his head in the sand. As the lethal day approaches, Dr. Chapman life
shifts from comfortable routine to screaming nightmares – she is haunted by the same
thoughts as everyone else involved: will she be viewed as a murderer or a mercyrer, and
will the law ever understand the difference should its enforcement agents investigate
Anthony’s demise. “The doorman knows me!” Dr. Chapman realizes two nights before
the arranged apocalypse, “But I’ve promised Anthony – what can I do?” Legalities are
hard on Thomas too: he is the sole heir of Anthony’s estate, so will he be considered an
accomplice?
Non-traditional and moral-uprooting, the play challenges our society’s established norms
of death, suicide and euthanasia – unexpectedly with a few milligrams of humor thrown
into the bitter mix – a compliment to the playwright David Rabe who manages the
intricate balance of dark and witty. With Anthony’s heartbreaking act of a terminally ill
patient, “A Question of Mercy” makes us to reevaluate what we consider merciful. And
as we follow him and the troubled trio of reluctant murderers-to-be through tribes and
tribulations to an unexpected culmination, the story ends with a surprising twist, just as
we think life and death can shock us no more.
Is mercy killing humane? Should euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide be legal?
Perhaps the modern society will never be able to come to terms with the subject. Perhaps
every human has to solve the question of mercy for himself. But what about the moral
dilemmas faced by those who chose to be angels of mercy? Maybe that’s why Al Pacino
played the part of Dr. Kevorkian in the recent HBO docudrama “You Don’t Know Jack.”
I don’t know if he found the answers, but “A Question of Mercy” sure stirred up enough
questions in its audience. In his “Note from the Director”, Jim Petosa says that the
team hoped to “share this one journey […] in the hope of stimulating conversation or
individual musing.” I’d say, they succeeded.
A Question of Mercy: Tim Spears as Anthony and Paula Langton as Doctor Chapman (photo credit Stan Barouh)
Is mercy killing humane? Should euthanasia or physician-assisted suicide be legal? These questions are at the forefront of David Rabe’s A Question of Mercy (Directed by Jim Petosa) now playing at the Atlantic Stage 2 Theatre.
Thomas (Alex Cranmer) and Anthony (Tim Spears) have been together for years, but now they are struggling with Anthony’s grueling battle with AIDS. Exhausted from treatments that don’t work and medicines that have more side effects than help, Anthony decides to take his own life as opposed to prolonging his slow painful death. Together with their friend Susanah (Martha Newman), the couple approaches a retired physician, Dr. Roberta Chapman (Paula Langton), who had recently stopped practicing medicine after having an anxiety attack during a routine surgery. They ask for her medical help with their controversial endeavor.
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