Takin' Over the Asylum - (Modern Plays) by Donna Franceschild (Paperback)

About the Book

Based on the scripts for the BBC television serial written by Donna Franceschild. This production was first performed at the Citizens Theatre on 14 February 2013. Performances at the Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, 14 February-9 March 2013. Performances at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 13 March-6 April 2013.

Book Synopsis

Adapted for the stage by the author, Takin' Over the Asylum is a hilarious, updated and profoundly moving adaptation of Donna Franceschild's Bafta-winning BBC TV-series. Set in a Scottish mental institution, the play reveals hope and joy in the fragile beauty of the human heart.
When Ready Eddie McKenna, Soul Survivor and double glazing salesman, arrives to reinvigorate St Jude's defunct hospital radio station he turns more than the ramshackle station upside down. The whisky drinking would-be DJ meets the 19-year-old bipolar Campbell, schizophrenic electronic genius Fergus, OCD Rosalie and the elusive self-harming Francine. Fighting against illness and perception Eddie and the patients of St Jude's strive for their dreams to be accepted.

About the Author

Donna Franceschild is a British-based television writer and dramatist, originally from the US, whose 90's TV-series Takin' Over the Asylum won the 1995 BAFTA award for Best Serial and Best Editing, RTS Award for Best Writer, Mental Health in the Media Award and the Scottish BAFTA for Best Serial and for Best Writer.