The Three Christs of Ypsilanti

Full-length drama / 1f, 4m

The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is the true story of three men who believed they were Jesus Christ and the doctor who tried to change their minds. Adapted from the seminal psychological study by Dr. Milton Rokeach.

Developed in the Soho Rep Writer Director Lab, with readings and workshops with PlayLabs at the Playwrights’ Center and the Lark Play Development Center.

REVIEWS for Milton Rokeach’s book:

“The Three Christs of Ypsilanti is more than the record of an experiment in the outermost reaches of social psychology. Among other things it represents, in an unpretentious but remarkably vivid way, what institutionalized madness is like.” 

—Steven Marcus, The New York Review of Books

"It seemed to me, aged 16, that The Three Christs of Ypsilanti contained everything there was to know about the world. That’s not the case of course, but if resources were short, I’d still be inclined to salvage this book as a way of explaining the terror of the human condition, and the astonishing fact that people battle for their rights and dignity in the face of that terror, in order to establish their place in the world, whatever they decide it has to be." 

—Jenny Diski, London Review of Books

FEATURES

“Lost and found, anguish and grace: Encounters and engagements with a compelling book” by Dan O’Brien in the Times Literary Supplement