What would happen if the patients from the ward in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' were let loose in a tenement building in New York, in 2010?
The year is 2010. The setting is 444 Van Van Vane street: one tenement building on one street in one district of the teeming city that is New York. Joe McMurphy has been living in the basement for several years. As Superintendent to the building our reliable, silent, always-present narrator hears and bears witness to the movements, conversations and thoughts of all the tenants.
Mandy and Ben are upstairs. New parents, they have just moved in and are full of the optimism of new beginnings. Above them is Zee whose main aim is to retain the horizontal position to which she has, through copious amounts of dope-smoking, grown accustomed. helmut makes porn videos next door. Garry campaigns to be allowed to play the music he needs to practise his DJ sets. Mrs Xhius communes with God upstairs through the all pervasive medium of day-time television. Henry aspires to write and make a go of things with Anna-lise, who lives downstairs. Nancy, aspiring actress who struggles to make ends meet as the building's maintenance costs increase, lives with her dog, Ulysses, and Mike and Juan live together on the third floor.
Residing in the Penthouse apartment and presiding over all is Morgan Honeysuckle: President of the Board at 444 Van Van Vane Street. Her desire for control, order and uniformity appears to take everyone under her influence until strange things start taking place which suggest that power in the building might in fact be wielded by strong and silent basement Joe...
