BATUM

A New Play by Richard Hernandez

BATUM

About the Play

An old man sits in a study trying to understand his uncle. David Saperstein — a lawyer who helped build the SEC on the conviction that people are flawed and must be guarded against, even from themselves — looks back across forty years at Dr. Philip M. Lovell, a celebrated 1931 Los Angeles naturopath who believed the opposite: that the body, and the world, could be corrected if only the conditions were made right. When Philip becomes convinced the young Soviet Union is the perfect proving ground for his ideas, he resolves to bring Soviet agriculture the avocado and summons David along. The comic mission darkens as the avocado pits are mistaken for explosives, antisemitism and bureaucracy close in, and Moscow reveals bread lines and fear Philip refuses to see. Sent onward toward Batum — the warm Black Sea port where avocados might grow and the dream might become real — he is robbed, humiliated, and abandoned by the system he came to admire, and never arrives. Back home, Philip absorbs the failure without surrendering the faith that produced it, chasing new promised lands for four decades while remaining bound to David by affection, exasperation, and argument, until a final reckoning in the Health House he is losing to back taxes forces the question that has haunted them both: are people systems that can be perfected, or contradictions that can only be lived with? BATUM is a play about certainty, assimilation, family, and the cost of loving a man who believes every problem has an answer if only he can think hard enough to find it.

I’ve spent my life trying to decide what Philip Lovell was. A fool. A fraud. Or the only one of us who was ever right about anything.
— David Saperstein

From the Record

The Historical Figures

Dr. Philip M. Lovell

Naturopath & Health Crusader

A celebrated Southern California naturopath whose syndicated Care of the Body Los Angeles Times column preached sunlight, raw food, and natural living to a nation. He believed nothing was accidental—that disease, like society itself, was simply a problem waiting for the right conditions and a clear enough mind to solve it. His ideas made him one of the most famous and controversial health reformers in America.

The Lovell Health House

Los Angeles · 1929

Conceived by Philip and Leah Lovell and designed by Richard Neutra, this pioneering steel-framed house above the Hollywood Hills became one of the defining landmarks of modern architecture. Nearly a century later, it remains one of California’s most influential and studied modern homes. Every room was shaped by a belief in light, air, and healthy living.

David Saperstein

Lawyer · Architect of the SEC

A brilliant lawyer who helped build the Securities and Exchange Commission on a simple conviction: that people are flawed, self-deceiving, and must be guarded against—even from themselves. Throughout his life, he remained Philip Lovell’s closest critic, fiercest defender, and devoted nephew. His steady hand helped shape the rules that still govern America’s financial markets today.

I mean to give them to the people building the future. Because they’re the only ones with the nerve to plant a seed. Something that won’t bear fruit for years.
— Dr. Philip Lovell

The Author

About the Playwright

Richard Hernandez is a playwright, writer, and communications strategist whose work explores history, family, politics, and the systems people build to understand themselves and one another. BATUM is his first full-length stage play, inspired by the extraordinary lives of his relatives, Dr. Philip M. Lovell and David Saperstein, and years of archival research into their family and the worlds they helped shape. Originally from Southern California, he is a classically trained vocalist who has performed throughout the region and internationally. He currently lives in Southern Nevada.

Suffering wasn’t proof they’d lost. Sometimes it’s proof a thing is being born.
— Leo Gallagher

By Invitation

Read Batum

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