Hickory Community Theatre, Fireman’s Kitchen, in Hickory, North Carolina presented tonight the play “Trying”, starring Charles Jeffers and Emma Lee Mayfield Kurts.
“Trying” is a two-character play based on the author's experience during 1967-1968 when she worked for Francis Biddle at his home in Washington, D.C. Judge Biddle had been Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt. After the war, President Truman named him Chief Judge of the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. The play is about a young Canadian girl and an old, Philadelphia aristocrat, "trying" to understand each other in what Biddle knows is the final year of his life.
The play presents two very different characters, and it chronicles a dynamic development in both of their personalities as they encounter together the twin challenges of changing Life and Technology. In the period which followed World War Two, many of civilization's historical foundations were being replaced with new patterns being born and many of the old traditions dying at the same time. The characters carried this rebirth and passing-away beautifully and the actors presented it magnificently. Most of the people in the Fireman's Kitchen, including those at my table were enthralled.
