So - we started from the need for an urban legend that could be used to create a "moral horror".
Sweeney Todd's urban legend - about a barber who slit customers' throats, and about human flesh being used in meat pies and sold to unsuspecting
customers - is still the topic of discussion - and dissention - about whether such an individual ever existed.
Ideally, I wanted something that
would resonate with people in similar ways.
The notion of involuntary organ donation seemed to fit the bill.
Although organ transplant surgeries are far more possible than ever before, the issue of a lack
of needed organs is very well known. It is the subject of period discussion in the media - success stories, new
technologies, and pleas for people to sign their organ donor cards.
Organ theft is in the news, popular media, and urban legends. Searching "organ theft" on Google brought up more than 1.7 million links (Nov. 2008)
News Stories:
Popular Media:
Urban Legends
The play ended up being set on a cruise ship for several reasons. First of all, most of the urban legends
around organ theft involve tourists - people away from home, in strange (to them) settings.
Secondly, it makes for a nice, self-contained set; 2 levels, most likely (according to the boss).
Third, both cruising and medical tourism are big business - why not combine them?
And lastly, because it works SO nicely with those ****** telemarketing calls! You know the ones - automated recordings that
start with a blast from a ship's horn (which you will have heard if active x is allowed on your webpage) - and then the you've won a
free cruise!!! spiel. Nothing is really free - but in this case, they are not going to charge your credit card a cent. All it'll cost
you is an organ or two.
