Skip to main content

Main menu

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Life
    • eLetters
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
    • Audio
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio

User menu

  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
British Journal of General Practice
  • RCGP
    • BJGP for RCGP members
    • BJGP Open
    • RCGP eLearning
    • InnovAIT Journal
    • Jobs and careers
    • RCGP e-Portfolio
  • Subscriptions
  • Alerts
  • Log in
  • Follow bjgp on Twitter
  • Visit bjgp on Facebook
  • Blog
  • Listen to BJGP podcast
Advertisement
British Journal of General Practice

Advanced Search

  • HOME
  • ONLINE FIRST
  • CURRENT ISSUE
  • ALL ISSUES
  • AUTHORS & REVIEWERS
  • SUBSCRIBE
  • RESOURCES
    • About BJGP
    • Conference
    • Advertising
    • BJGP Life
    • eLetters
    • Librarian information
    • Alerts
    • Resilience
    • Video
    • Audio
    • COVID-19 Clinical Solutions
The Back Pages

The Doctor's Dilemma — 100 years on

Mike Pringle
British Journal of General Practice 2007; 57 (534): 76.
Mike Pringle
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF
Loading

On Monday 20 November there was a reading of Shaw's The Doctor's Dilemma at the Royal College of Physicians, London, to mark the centenary of its first performance. When I was flattered into agreeing to take part, I had heard of it and even quoted from it; but I had never read it or been to a performance.

On getting the play through Amazon, my first impression was of timelessness. The play addresses, through absurdity and great humour, many of our current dilemmas in medicine. In particular, the central conundrum concerns rationing. A recently knighted physician has a full ward of consumptive patients, all selected on the basis of their worthiness for the new ‘effective’ treatment.

Then two new cases of tuberculosis present themselves. The first is a promising artist, with a very attractive wife, but who proves to be an amoral scoundrel; and the second a failed GP who is steady and reliable. Which one should be squeezed into the ward?

Each doctor has his preferred treatments, from an operation to remove a fictional organ (the nuciform sac), anti-toxins and inoculations, to a pound of ripe greengages half an hour before lunch. Through twists and turns in which senior medical men first vie to treat the artist, and then compete to be the first to abandon him, Shaw explores all the vanities of the medical profession. This includes the internecine warfare in which physicians and surgeons sneer at GPs, physicians denigrate surgeons, and all despise their patients — good cynical stuff that might grace a similar play today.

When I received the adapted version, the play had been greatly improved by Michael O'Donnell's edit, except that he had expunged my character, a rather smug anti-Semitic GP. I was then cast as a very elderly and wise Irish physician who has seen it all before. I read my role assiduously and attended two rehearsals (with no discernable benefit from either of them).

Then, with a week to go, the casting error was realised — it was stretching credulity that I was several decades older than Sir Michael Rawlins who was the male lead — and I suddenly became Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington, the Queen's physician. BB, as he is known, ‘radiates an enormous self-satisfaction’ who is ‘considered, scientifically, a colossal humbug’. I had sufficient insight to detect a smidgen of type casting.

But perhaps I was not alone. Jim Johnson was cast as the obnoxious surgeon; Sir Liam Donaldson as the infected, failed GP who goes on to be a medical officer of health after his cure; Niall Dickson as the illiterate newspaper man; Evan Harris as the dishonest artist; and Sally Davies as a cantankerous housekeeper. Far be it from me to suggest that any of these were also typecast.

And the performance? It was, I think, characterised by a raw energy and passion that compensated for the lack of preparation and, frankly, ability. Although several cast members, notably Fiona Godlee as the artist's scrumptious wife, seemed to have a glimmering of acting talent. As for myself, I disguised my ineptitude under a miasma of over-acting. It seemed the only way.

  • © British Journal of General Practice, 2007.
Back to top
Previous ArticleNext Article

In this issue

British Journal of General Practice: 57 (534)
British Journal of General Practice
Vol. 57, Issue 534
January 2007
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Or,
sign in or create an account with your email address
Email Article

Thank you for recommending British Journal of General Practice.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person to whom you are recommending the page knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The Doctor's Dilemma — 100 years on
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from British Journal of General Practice
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from British Journal of General Practice.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
The Doctor's Dilemma — 100 years on
Mike Pringle
British Journal of General Practice 2007; 57 (534): 76.

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero

Share
The Doctor's Dilemma — 100 years on
Mike Pringle
British Journal of General Practice 2007; 57 (534): 76.
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Mendeley logo Mendeley

Jump to section

  • Top
  • Article
  • Info
  • eLetters
  • PDF

More in this TOC Section

The Back Pages

  • Tips for GP trainees working in obstetrics and gynaecology
  • How to protect general practice from child protection
  • Who Is My Patient?
Show more The Back Pages

Digest

  • Exhibition review
  • Book review
  • Template for a junior doctor
Show more Digest

Related Articles

Cited By...

Advertisement

BJGP Life

BJGP Open

 

@BJGPjournal's Likes on Twitter

 
 

British Journal of General Practice

NAVIGATE

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • All Issues
  • Online First
  • Authors & reviewers

RCGP

  • BJGP for RCGP members
  • BJGP Open
  • RCGP eLearning
  • InnovAiT Journal
  • Jobs and careers
  • RCGP e-Portfolio

MY ACCOUNT

  • RCGP members' login
  • Subscriber login
  • Activate subscription
  • Terms and conditions

NEWS AND UPDATES

  • About BJGP
  • Alerts
  • RSS feeds
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

AUTHORS & REVIEWERS

  • Submit an article
  • Writing for BJGP: research
  • Writing for BJGP: other sections
  • BJGP editorial process & policies
  • BJGP ethical guidelines
  • Peer review for BJGP

CUSTOMER SERVICES

  • Advertising
  • Contact subscription agent
  • Copyright
  • Librarian information

CONTRIBUTE

  • BJGP Life
  • eLetters
  • Feedback

CONTACT US

BJGP Journal Office
RCGP
30 Euston Square
London NW1 2FB
Tel: +44 (0)20 3188 7679
Email: journal@rcgp.org.uk

British Journal of General Practice is an editorially-independent publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners
© 2021 British Journal of General Practice

Print ISSN: 0960-1643
Online ISSN: 1478-5242