A Question of Mercy: A Play Based on the Essay by Richard Selzer (Rabe, David)
by David Rabe
Category: Drama

The Tony Award–winning playwright of Hurlyburly “confronts the timely topic of assisted suicide . . . an affirmation of dignity that rings clear and true” (Variety). David Rabe is one of America’s finest dramatists. In A Question of Mercy, he explores the controversial and emotional issue of euthanasia, delving deep into the ties that bind friends and lovers. Thomas and Anthony are lovers struggling with Anthony’s final, exhausting battle with AIDS. Joined by their friend Susanah and a retired doctor, whose help Thomas has requested, they fashion a heartbreaking friendship as they work through the stages of a plan to relieve Anthony of his illness and his life. Rabe creates a passionate depiction of four people confronted with the reality of a loved one’s fight with death and a compelling dramatic event that poses the question: “What would you do?” “A moving and enlightening experience.” —Backstage “Completely gripping. This life and death tale questions the moral implications involved with assisted suicide, and the honor behind the action. A serious and provocative night at the theatre.” —Theasy Praise for David Rabe “Few contemporary dramatists have dealt with violence, physical and psychological, more impressively than Rabe.” —Kirkus Reviews “A remarkable storyteller.” —Chicago Tribune “Rabe’s mastery of dialogue is the equal of Pinter and Mamet put together . . . full of a measured Mafia formality played against Jacobean terrors, blood lust, horror and revenge raised to an unlikely poetry dazed by equally unlikely insights.” —The Boston Globe