1998: Damaged Care

A "nouveau commedia" nightmare: As the "invisible hand" of the free market tightens its grip on America's healthcare system, a newly privatized hospital becomes a McHealth outlet complete with drive-through surgery, and a shrinking staff on an ever-accelerating schedule struggles with cost-cutting, treatment-rationing managers to care for a swelling mob of ever-sicker patients. In the San Francisco Mime Troupe's new 1998 summer show, America's healthcare crisis becomes a metaphor for today's downsized, sped-up, go-go economy, where the stock market booms as whole classes of workers are dumped onto the streets and even high-paid professionals work in sweatshops.

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