Cave Life
by David Steven Rappoport

THE STORY: Charleston is a young woman living in Manhattan who has a history of mental illness.

She hallucinates visions of a Neanderthal caveman named Enki who seems to be more accepting and loving of her than her husband, Frank.

The household is further complicated by Frank's emotionally disturbed teenage son from a previous marriage, Frank's lover Sophronia, and Charleston's disturbed mother, Irene.

Charleston has become pregnant, and Enki tells her that she will have to choose between being crazy or having the baby.

Frank, comes to the realization that he too has choices to face —the choice of remaining with Charleston or getting on with his life in a healthier way.

Rappoport's sharp-edged humor dissects the despair, brokenness and pain of life.

CAVE LIFE powerfully and unusually explores what Sophronia calls the “geography of good intentions,” raising the questions of what we owe ourselves, what we owe others and what borders between them.