SOURCE: Daniels, Robert L. Review of A Question of Mercy, by David Rabe. Variety 366, no. 5 (3 March 1997): 78.

In the following review, Daniels provides a favorable assessment of A Question of Mercy.

David Rabe's gripping new drama, A Question of Mercy, confronts the timely topic of assisted suicide. With unsettling candor and disturbing insight, the play arouses pity and understanding of a troubling subject. Director Douglas Hughes has staged the play with conviction, drawing urgency and resonance from his fine principal players.

Based on a New York Times Magazine essay by Dr. Richard Selzer, the drama builds in intensity and dramatic tension after Thomas (Stephen Spinella) asks a retired surgeon (Zach Grenier) to assist in the suicide of his lover, Anthony (Juan Carlos Hernandez), ill with AIDS. Although Anthony is physically exhausted, depressed and experiencing uncommon pain, the doctor, whose training and philosophy has always been for the preservation of...