Trying **** TNT
The familiar territory of eager young newcomer winning over curmudgeonly old-timer is given an autobiographical twist in Joanna McClelland Glass’s 2004 dramatised reinvention of her time spent as personal secretary to Judge Francis Beverley Biddle in the late 60’s.
In his heyday, Biddle (who was born in 1886) served as Solicitor General, then Attorney General of the United States and subsequently was appointed a judge at the Nuremberg Trials in the mid 40’s. By the time 25 year old Sarah from Saskatchewan comes to work for him, he’s into his eighties, frail and ailing, but with a mind that (though subject to occasional lapses of memory) is often as sharp and incisive as that of a man many years his junior. Harvard educated and a stickler for routine and grammatical correctness, the irascible old man isn’t impressed with the new employee selected by his wife, but his initial doubts are gradually replaced by an increasing dependence and respect as she sorts out the accumulated chaos on his desk and encourages him to finish his memoirs.
There’s only one possible ending to this two-hander, but Derek Bond’s jewel of a production (lovingly designed by James Perkins) makes their relationship a very human one, amusing and touching by turns. Meghan Popiel’s down-to-earth Sarah exudes earnest determination, and Michael Craig (himself an octogenarian) is in impressively fine, nuanced fettle.
Their journey together is predictable, but the acting is first rate.
Finborough, Finborough Road, SW10 (0844 847 1652) to 11th April (£13 - £9)
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