DACHAU FOR QUEERS To Premiere At The Philadelphia Fringe Festival
Performances will run from September 25-28.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Aug. 14, 2025
The Lab Will Present Dachau For Queers, Written By Daniel NeerPART OF THE PHILADELPHIA FRINGE FESTIVAL. Performances will run from September 25-28. The production will be directed by Ted Gorodetzky
Cast members include Tristan Jenis, Lois Sach,* Hannah Anderson, Ted Gorodetzky,* and Avery Leach.
(*appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association)
Adrift in 1970's San Francisco, runaway Jonah Goodson lands in the belly of the beast, confined at California's notorious Atascadero Psychiatric Hospital.
His "sickness?" Homosexuality.
Navigating a psychotropic maze of barbaric treatments, he encounters the most unlikely guides. But are they real or imagined? At times brutal and at others comically surreal, this innovative odyssey is punctuated by surprising characters, leaps of fantasy, and heartfelt truths. The Real Dachau for Queers is based on events.
From 1949, California's legal system offered a grim alternative to prison for gay men convicted of sexual deviation, perversion and even minor offenses: commitment to a state mental hospital for "treatment" until "cured," a sentence that could last a lifetime. One such institution, Atascadero Prison, dubbed the "Dachau for Queers," subjected gay men to horrific procedures, including a drug-induced form of waterboarding.
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