Stanford Experiment (#BASE)

In 2006 my A-Level drama group created a half-hour piece of theatre based on the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment of Dr Zimbardo. A lot of time, sweat and tears went into the production, and so did this poem, which kicked off the piece (this version is edited, as the original was filled with mistakes in meter and rhyme):

A creature of destruction,

Whose first want is of id,

Taught kindness in construction,

And urges base, forbid.

Do neither harm nor evil,

Take only what is yours,

Be gentle, just and level,

And never break these laws.

In human hearts, ambition

May appear as if by chance,

To tackle hard conditions

And change of circumstance.

Though should a person query,

Push the psyche ‘til it breaks,

In their ill pursuit of theory,

Dark malevolence awakes.

Assume a false authority,

Abusive, blind, abrupt.

Then evil holds majority;

Corrosive, raw, corrupt.

Should one of such iniquity

Take hold control of meek;

Will come abuse, or equity?

Which will of man is weak?

Take from a soul their liberty

to force them into pain,

And cast them to captivity,

Make their every effort vain.

A Doctor plays with fire,

The volunteers appear –

They dance on withered wire;

As the Experiment draws near…

Fun bonus time! How many adaptations of the Stanford Prison Experiment have been committed to film?

Last updated December 2017

Film:

1977 (Italy) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0126922/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

2001 (Germany) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0250258/

2010 (USA) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0997152/

2015 (USA) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420293/

TV:

2006 (Veronica Mars) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0833380/?ref_=ttep_ep2

2008 (Life) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1185953/?ref_=ttep_ep4

2014 (Ond Ondere Ondest) https://www.dr.dk/tv/se/ond-ondere-ondest/-/ond-ondere-ondest-1-6

2016 (Castle) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4966312/?ref_=ttep_ep3