Defending Richard

CAP 21’s Monday Night Reading Series features Defending Richard, by Dana Zeller-Alexis, directed by Austin Pendleton. In physics once a star is caught on an event horizon of a black hole, the star is paralyzed in the speed of light.

In Defending Richard, a single mother and a sensory handicapped son struggle to separate, exploring how far they can each go without being pulled into the black hole of the other. Richard – the protagonist – is pulled between his physics teacher and his mother in his sometimes humorous but ultimately serious quest to own himself as an individual in the context of his only real chance for a career in physics. A neighbor and a girlfriend also impact this gifted young man’s attempt to not be swallowed by his mother, society or himself.