A Fierce and Tender Family Reckoning in The Velocity of Autumn

There comes an age when, instead of thinking about your grandparents or parents, you think about yourself. And that is what happened to me seeing Onstage’s latest production, The Velocity of Autumn by Eric Coble. Set in an apartment in Brooklyn, Alexandra (Linda Benning) is an artist in her 80s and the mother of three. She has barricaded herself in the apartment because her two older children consider it better to put her in assisted living. The youngest son, Chris (James P. Darvas), who has been estranged for two decades, returns at the petition of his siblings and to buffer the situation.