With a time frame ranging from the early-Christian era to the 19th Century, Pathological Venus explores the themes of male-female relations, the powerful oppressing the powerless, and the ways women, within their limited circumstances, seek to achieve some level of power or freedom. Set mainly in 1890 at the Salpetriere, the famous Parisian women’s hospital for the indigent and insane, the play follows hysteria patients under the care of their doctor, Jean-Martin Charcot. The strange and complex relationship between male doctor and female patient mirrors the intricate negotiations between men and women generally – husbands and wives, fathers and daughters – and encourages us to examine the inherent and societal difficulties between the sexes.