Samuel Shem.

摘要

It's a cold winter's night in Sydney and Samuel Shem is on stage, waiting for the audience to settle. The Australian premiere of his play Bill W and Dr Bob has just been given an enthusiastic reception and Shem and his co-author and wife, Janet Surrey, are ready to answer questions. One of the first hands to go up is from a man near the front who thanks them for the play, which centres on the relationship between the two men who founded Alcoholics Anonymous: "I'm an alcoholic and I wouldn't be alive today if it wasn't for AA", he says. Then another hand goes up. A young woman says she hasn't ever had a drop of alcohol, but was moved by the play's portrayal of human connection. Connections are what it is all about, Shem and Surrey respond. In the partnership between AA founders Bill Wilson and Dr Bob Smith, they recognised a story of how two people, who couldn't stand by themselves, found the courageto lean on each other.