Set in the sweltering Washington DC summer of 1881, President James Abram Garfield lays dying behind a curtain in the White House - Charles Guiteau has buried a bullet deep in the President's belly, and Dr. D Willard Bliss is trying desperately to find it. Enter Alexander Graham Bell, overwhelmed and exhausted by the success of his revolutionary telephone. Both men seek greatness: for Bell, an invention that will redefine his success as a scientist; for Bliss, to be the ultimate medical savior of the nation. As Garfield slowly succumbs to sepsis, their failed attempts to save him fully charge the motivations of Bell's assistant, Charles Sumner Tainter, as what he hears from Bell's machine suggests what they're searching for may not be a piece of lead.

BELL AND BLISS was inspired by primary resource materials that include not only the personal journals and letters of the titular characters, but also visceral artifacts such as President Garfield's spine and the bullet that wounded him. The playwright interacted with these primary resources at institutions including the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, the Historical Society of Washington DC, and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.