Listen to The Warm Up: your audio introduction to the performance.

Synopsis

Act One (Winter to Spring): Ecstasy

In a struggling industrial town, residents suffer increasing chronic pain. Dr. Theresa Hart treats patients with compassion but feels powerless, plagued by her own migraines. Her teenage daughter Noy resents her, calling her a “shitty doctor.”

A mysterious carnival arrives led by the devilish Lucky Mack, offering the townspeople joy and release on his carousel, “The Galloping Cure.” The community becomes enthralled; even skeptics like the eccentric Ivona Kowalski feel relief. Noy experiences the ride’s euphoria and urges her mother to try it. Theresa remains wary, but the town descends into mass hysteria as the carousel’s allure grows.

Act Two (Summer to Autumn): Danger

The mayor hails the Galloping Cure as an economic miracle, and Theresa publicly endorses it, partnering with Lucky Mack. Demand spirals, fights erupt, and Mack institutes dynamic pricing and a two-ride-per-week limit. At home, Noy returns injured in the carousel frenzy but finds relief riding a “HomeHorse”, a stick-horse for private use that Mack provides. Theresa, curious, succumbs and discovers her migraines momentarily vanish. 

The sheep and dogs of the town sing joyfully as Mack tempts her further, blurring medicine with miracle. Meanwhile, Noy and the town’s youth retreat to an abandoned cinema, where HomeHorses transform into a rave-like party. They drift into dangerous dependence, surrendering their sense of self to the galloping cure.

Act Three (Autumn to Bitter Winter): The Deal

Mack preys on Ivona, persuading her to sacrifice her eyes, hair, and body parts for his carousel horses, which grotesquely incorporate human remains. Theresa, exhausted and addicted, nearly loses herself before realizing Noy and the other youths have been mutilated: tongues, hair, and more taken by Mack. She tries to save Noy, but her daughter succumbs, dying in her arms, convinced she was “ridden” by the cure. 

Mack then confronts Theresa with Rosa, the baby, insisting they are partners in the town’s destruction. Theresa resists but cannot undo the damage: Ivona and Noy are transformed into carousel horses, and the town continues to ride, Theresa doubles down on her commitment to serving the town in the face of addiction.