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Two drunks stumble but prevail
(by Herb Hammer - April 29, 2010)
THEATER, BY HERB HAMMER
Two drunks stumble but prevail
Bill Wilson had not had a drink for five months. But in the lobby of an Akron hotel, he was suddenly desperate for one, knowing full well once he started drinking again he might never stop.
"Bill W. and Dr. Bob," surprisingly selling out at the Cleveland Play House, tells the story of how two drunks, Bill Wilson and Bob Smith, through a series of mishaps, got together to form Alcoholics Anonymous.
Stephen Bergman and Janet Surrey stay fairly close to the real story of the very first moments of AA and have written an absorbing play.
The authors are less committed to Bill Wilson as an extraordinary inventive revolutionary than as a drunk who stumbled on an idea. Bill Wilson was convinced the only person who can save a drunk is another drunk.
In 1935, Bill Wilson, a former successful financial wizard, was lying in a hospital bed. He had lost everything. The liquor had nearly destroyed his life. A sudden flash of light was about to save him. But months later, the overwhelming craving had returned. As he stood reeling in that hotel lobby, he grabbed the telephone and tried desperately for help. Not from a doctor but from another drunk. He finally reached Bob Smith, the kind of drunk Bill Wilson was looking for. The rest, of course, is history.
Playwrights Stephen Bergman, himself a doctor and a novelist, and his wife, Janet Surrey, a clinical psychologist, have stayed as close to the actual events as possible. Their first act is dynamite as these two men, living in different worlds, nearly destroy themselves. The scenes of wild drunkenness are gut-wrenching.
Act 2, when our two title characters have put their own lives back together and have set out to save every drunk they can find, is where the play stumbles. The playwrights are unable to keep up the breakneck pace of Act 1 and have to settle for the slow-footed job of putting the self-help program to work.
James C. Swonger has created a novel set. Racks of empty liquor bottles several feet high surround the stage as a reminder of the horrors of alcoholism.
On the stage, director Seth Gordon has brought out a heartfelt realism from his actors.
Sean Patrick Reilly, the burley genius Bill Wilson, convinces with a sterling acting job. From drunkenness to determination, he delivers an outstanding performance.
Timothy Crowe, as Dr. Bob, who has shined at the Play House in the past, has done it again. His early violence can scare you out of your seat.
Best of all is Charles Kartali, who plays nearly a dozen roles, each one far different from the other. He is truly amazing.
Denise Cormier and Margaret Daly are fine as the wives who are hanging on. The roles, however, are written in such a thin manner you hardly remember they are there.
Though Bill and Bob began their work in Akron, the first AA meeting of any consequence was held in Cleveland. That must have been where all the drunks were.
Though "Bill W. and Dr. Bob" doesn't hold up to the finish line, much of the play will keep audiences wrapped up in the fascination of how this 75-year-old organization began.
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