Analysis of the Play "Doc" by Sharon Pollock
...to write autobiographical plays that focus on “interrogating the possibilities and consequences of choice, the price of pursuing a vision, personal and political responsibilities, and family dynamics”(Broadview Press). Pollock was once quoted as saying, “…a good play should provoke intelligent discussion about an issue or theme pertinent to our lives” (Cramer-Byng & Rubin). Appropriately, that is why this essay will examine the play “Doc” and the two main characters, Catherine, and Ev. “Doc” is play, which seeks to exorcise the ghosts of the past, and two allow past, present, and future to co-exist without damaging each other. “Doc” is about the homecoming of Catherine on the eve of ceremonies honouring her physician father, which has served the public dauntingly. However, instead of enlightening the atmosphere, “[Catherine] unleashes a kaleidoscope of memories as father and daughter attempt to lay old ghosts to rest”(Broadview Press). Ev, the Doc of the play’s title, dedicated his life to providing medical care for the poor having been raised in poverty himself: “[he] lived on porridge and molasses and had to fight for every god damn thing [he] got!”* Moreover, it is quickly brought to the reader’s attention that this family has been plagued with anguish continuously and that their father’s blind eye to the matters as only escalated the problem further. His dedication to his work leaves incapable of dealing with his wife who through alcohol is on the verge of demise. Presented as Catherine (adult) memory play, which transforms its autobiographical subtext of suffering and survival “…into a universal story of love and forgiveness” (Cramer-Byng & Rubin). In attempt for father and daughter to confront all the revelations of the past, the play incorporates all the main characters of their past, Bob, Catherine’s mother; Oscar; Doc’s best friend; and Katie, Catherine as a child. Throughout the play humour leavens the dramatic struggle to first love, then understand, and finally forgiveness between Ev and Catherine. Ev’s dedicated service to his community came at an expense to his family. His children only see him as a distant figure that appears briefly in the middle of the night. His wife Bob loses her tenuous identity inside the straitjacket role of a doctor’s wife. She often suspects affairs between her husband and his nurses but her conjectures are disregarded. Ev by the end of his career has almost “divorced” his wife to “marry” his work, which leads Bob to alcohol and eventually succumbs to suicide. As he closes in own retirement, he is becoming evermore isolated and alone, which is applied through his attempt to deal with his mother’s suicide by walking in front of a train and his distancing relationship between his family and his best friend Oscar. It appears that the sacrifices Ev choose were not worth it but however at the end of the play there is a lingering sense that he knew exactly why he had made the choices he did, and that he wasn’t acting entirely as a compulsive egoist. However, Catherine/Katie at the heart of all this would disag...