Mad Underground

At Happy Happy Valley amusement park in 1963, eleven-year-old Alick is more interested in tiaras and photography than the boyhood his mother and stepfather have planned for him. When he follows a bitter park mascot into the tunnels beneath the attractions, he enters a decaying wonderland inhabited by a washed-up princess, a philosophical frog, a hapless cowboy, a dangerous siren, and a sarcastic donkey who despises children. Each promises to help him escape, but they are all trapped in roles of their own. Darkly comic, surreal, and unexpectedly tender, *Mad Underground* follows a child's journey through illusion, disappointment, and danger toward the courage to claim her identity, and a mother's struggle to see child who has been beside her all along for who she is.

Characters - 3f, 3m with doubling, flexible

ALICK - a boy of 11, played by a young woman or girl

BABS - 30s, his mother

SIREN - an otherworldly seductress, played by Babs

KEN - 30s, his stepfather
COWBOY - a park character, played by Ken

PRINCESS PLINDA - 50s or 60s, female, a dried-up princess character

FROG - female or male, any age, perhaps Quebecois

DONKEY JACK - a park character who doesn't like children, male

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