Over a century ago, when Bernard Shaw wrote The Doctor's Dilemma in 1906, health care in England was woefully primitive. If one was unfortunate enough to become ill in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one essentially had a choice of two treatment options. The patient could either go to the local pharmacist to purchase an expensive patent medicine, the ingredients of which were largely opiates or alcohol and therefore addictive; or the patient could see an equally expensive doctor and receive a diagnosis that often led to treatment involving sharp knives, bleeding, and the prescription of more addictive drugs. Treatment options and professions claimed they could cure anything and everything and save a man from his impending last rites. Bernard Shaw apparently found these claims as far-fetched as his contemporary audiences, for his comedy, The Doctor's Dilemma, offers an ironic portrait of the attempts of medical professionals of the day to play God. This biblical irony that Shaw wrote with such wit could not have been depicted more clearly than through the set design of Ken MacDonald. In particular, MacDonald's interpretations of Christian symbolism became even more pronounced when combined with director Morris Panych's blocking choices and Shaw's text. There are several references in the Bible suggesting a theme of left versus right having significance in the Christian faith. The right side is generally symbolized as the side of good and righteousness, while the left side is characterized as evil and corrupt. Developing this theme in the first act, MacDonald created three larger-than-life x-ray portraits to transform the entire scene into an aesthetic representation of ...... middle of paper ......, his final performance of supper and its allusion to original sin depict a sharp question: where does God's work end and the doctor's work begin? In our contemporary society where cloning, euthanasia, abortion and artificial insemination are gaining popularity and social support, the distinction between the roles of the supernatural and that of medical science is becoming increasingly blurred. Let's just hope that any dilemma regarding current medical morality will always contain egalitarian and humanist principles. http://www.augustatech.edu/anatomy/chapter%201.html (accessed August 23, 2010). Ken MacDonald. “Designer’s Notes.” The Doctor's Dilemma, 2010. “Analysis of The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh. » 2010.http://www.lifeofvangogh.com/analysis-starry-night.html (accessed August 23 2010).