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Diminished Capacity
Author(s):
Tom Dulack
THE STORY: Judge Frank Troy is a burned-out New York State Supreme Court Judge. On the morning after his father dies, he finds himself arguing with his young law student summer intern, and fending off his sister on the phone who is trying to persuade him to attend his father’s funeral, though he never really liked him much. Judge Troy has a particularly vicious criminal ready to come before him for sentencing, and a full calendar to clear in an upcoming session with an Assistant District Attorney and a Legal Aid defender. In the mix comes the request by an old colleague to intervene with the DA on behalf of a wealthy client who just threw his wife out of a twenty-five-story window, while in a state of "diminished capacity" after drinking. Judge Troy sympathizes, as he keeps a bottle of vodka in his desk, and uses it. Near it, he also keeps a revolver, which comes into use when the criminal he’s about to sentence takes Judge Troy and his intern hostage in the Judge’s chambers. The play elevates the problems of race prejudice and the imminent collapse of the criminal justice system that aggravates it. It is a play about a collision of cultures and values that breeds crime and corruption at every turn of the overwhelmed system, revealing the fault lines of urban America at the end of the twentieth century.
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Genre(s): | Drama
| Time Period(s): | Not Available | Play Type: | Play | Runtime: | Not Available | Acts: | Not Available | Set Complexity: | Not Available | Set Information: | Not Available | Year First Published: | Not Available | Total Characters: | 6 | Male Characters: | 5 | Female Characters: | 1 | Androgynous Characters: | Not Available | Minimum Cast: | Not Available | Maximum Cast: | Not Available | Cost: | FEE: $60 per performance Royalty/cost information prone to change. Please check with the publisher for the most accurate information. | Publisher: | Dramatists Play Service Click on the publisher's name above for additional information, including updated prices. | ISBN: | Not Available |
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