Murder in the second degree by reason of depraved indifference is the sole count of the indictment in Donato Colucci's explosive new courtroom drama The Chappaquiddick Case.
The play concerns the 1969 accident, which prompted an international scandal, in which Senator Ted Kennedy drove his car over a bridge on Chappaquiddick Island causing the death of his passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. The media claimed that the powerful Kennedy, having attended a party and thought to be drunk at the time of the accident, was able to evade a trial for manslaughter.
The drama, partly inspired by Brecht, is told in a documentary style calling for over 100 images projected onto a screen. The images represent all of the people, places, maps, diagrams, and evidence involved in the case.
Imagined to take place in 1970, the action begins near the end of the trial and the defense has just called its last witness, Kennedy. Act I is the direct exam of Kennedy by his defense attorney and is based on Kennedy's own testimony given at an inquest into the death of Mary Jo Kopechne on January 5, 1970 at Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, MA; Act II is the cross-exam by the prosecutor; Act III presents the closing arguments. The audience is the jury. There are four characters: Kennedy (age 37), and the unnamed Defense Attorney, Prosecutor, and Judge.
A readers' theatre version of the play, with images edited in, is now available on DVD. Click to play trailer
