Koekaniinit

Tukkateatteri

Koekaniinit (lit. test bunnies, engl. guinea pigs or lab rats)

A group of psychiatric patients are hospitalised and enrolled into a study which they know nothing about. They are monitored by cameras round the clock in the ward. They all have some psychiatric problems and each of them tell their own story in this play.
The main character, Susi, is a nonbinary, depressed and suicidal writer and has been hospitalised after a suicide attempt. Susi is tired of Finnish healthcare which is highly medicalised and struggles as a writer in a money-driven world. Most psychiatric patients in Finland are given strong medication in hospital and then left alone to survive on their own. This troubles Susi.

Koekaniinit raises a question: can mental patients be treated as lab rats? Where is the line how far can research go when there are broken minds under study?
Koekaniinit also has dark humour in it. There are some absurd scenes, which critisize medications, tv-realities, producers and even the Finnish president Niinistö's group of experts who made up some stupid guidelines for people how to stay well and happy.