A SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. TITLE

Bill W. and Dr. Bob

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  3f, 3m

Samuel Shem, Janet Surrey

Winner! 2007 Performing Arts Award from the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence

Winner! 2010 Best Play - Regional Drama Festival, British Columbia

"Wonderful uplifting new play...a joyous drama of the triumph and survival of the …

Bill W. and Dr. Bob

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    3f, 3m
  • Duration
    Duration
    More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Docudrama/History
  • Suggested Use
    • Scene Work
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult

Details

Summary

Newly revised edition! From the author of the best-selling novel, The House of God, this critically acclaimed version which played Off Broadway in 2007, tells the amazing story of the two men who pioneered Alcoholics Anonymous, and of their wives, who founded Al Anon. During the roaring '20s, New York stockbroker Bill Wilson rides high on money, fame, and booze. In '29, both he and the market crash and he becomes a hopeless drunk. Dr. Bob Smith, a surgeon in Akron, Ohio, and a pillar of the community, has been a secret drunk for thirty years, often going into the operating room hungover and high on sedatives. His family has tried everything to no avail. Through an astonishing series of events involving doctors, ministers, the Oxford Group evangelical movement, and Henrietta Sieberling a scion of the Goodyear Rubber fortune, Bill and Bob meet on Mother's Day of 1935. The two men form a relationship which keeps each sober. Fired up, they seek out a third drunk to see if their program will work for others. Richly textured with the ragtime and jazz of the era, the play tells a magnificent American success story.

For more information, please visit the offical website at www.billwanddrbob.com.

Cast Attributes
Performing Groups
  • Time Period 1950s
  • Duration More than 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: £70 per performance plus VAT when applicable.

    Please submit a license request to determine availability.

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Authors

Author

Samuel Shem

Author

Janet Surrey

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