The Doctor's Dilemma is a play by George Bernard Shaw first staged in 1906. It is a problem play about the moral dilemmas created by limited medical resources, and the conflicts between the demands of private medicine as a business and a vocation. Characters Roles and original cast: Mr. Danby – Lewis Casson Sir Patrick Cullen – William Farren, Junr. Louis Dubedat – Harley Granville-Barker Emmy – Claire Greet Dr. Blenkinsop – Edmund Gurney Minnie Tinwell – Mary Hamilton Cutler Walpole – James Hearn Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington – Eric Lewis The Newspaper Man – Trevor Lowe A Waiter – Percy Marmont Jennifer Dubedat – Lillah McCarthy Redpenny – Norman Page Leo Schutzmacher – Michael Sherbrooke Sir Colenso Ridgeon – Ben Webster THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA ROYAL COURT THEATRE PROGRAMME "Commencing Monday December 31st, 1906 for Six Weeks Only" The Newspaper Man is played by Mr Jules Shaw, according to this programme. Plot The eponymous dilemma of the play is that of the newly honoured doctor Sir Colenso Ridgeon, who has developed a revolutionary new cure for tuberculosis. However, his private medical practice, with limited staff and resources, can only treat ten patients at a time. From a group of fifty patients he has selected ten he believes he can cure and who, he believes, are most worthy of being saved. However, when he is approached by a young woman, Jennifer Dubedat, with a deadly ill husband, Louis Dubedat, he admits he can, at a stretch, save one more patient, but that the individual in question must be shown to be most worthy of being saved. However, the situation is complicated when an old friend and colleague reveals, he too, needs treatment. Sir Colenso must choose which patient he will save: a kindly, altruistic poor medical colleague, or an extremely gifted but also very unpleasant, womaniser, bigamist and amoral young artist. Sir Colenso falls instantly in love with the young and vivacious Mrs Dubedat and this makes it even harder for the doctor to separate his motives for the decision of who shall live. Preface The Preface to the play – typically, as long as the drama itself – is an extensive tirade against the professions, and in particular the medical profession, as being excessively given to protestations of the public good and the actual pursuit of private interest. As a founding member of the Fabian movement in 1884, Shaw –