Synopsis
Diminished Capacity
Published by Dramatists Play Service
5 Male 1 Female
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