Stumps

In Mark Medoff’s Stumps, two handicapped Vietnam veterans, Stephen Ryder and Jerry Marcus, want to make a high-class movie with explicit sex, a step beyond Last Tango in Paris. They elicit the interest of the young explicit film star, Fawn Sierra, who arrives in the hills of Austin for a meeting with her “manager,” Calvin Rhodes, a “gentleman” who may be a minister or may be evil incarnate. Calvin’s dark personality slowly emerges as he tries to wrest the project from the writers. Trying to keep the events in balance is Lin Ryder, Stephen’s Vietnamese wife. Ultimately, Cal destroys all semblance of balance and Lin is able to reestablish order only through catastrophic violence of her own.