Madhouse Shenanigans, or A Private Method

This full length, three act play serves as a polemic against the privatization of government services. The first and second acts work as socio-political satire leading to the Grand Guignol third act finale. A brief synopsis follows: A greedy administrator conspires with colleagues to turn the state run insane asylum into a private for profit mental hospital for rich patients. They enlist the efforts of some creative patients and a real estate crook to make it look like the government mandated progressive therapies and the poor infrastructure led to the inmates taking over the madhouse. After successfully convincing the government inspector to recommend the sale of the property rather than incur the apparently expensive costs of refurbishment, they purchase it for pennies on the dollar and begin its transformation including the implementation of punitive therapeutic methods. What happens when the conspirators’ avarice and contempt for their patients lead to the failure of their scheme? While inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s comedy short story “The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether,” this is not an adaptation per se. This play builds upon the genre conventions of “the inmates taking over the asylum,” extending the concept, in order to ridicule the greedy and disingenuous.