This play explores questions about what is Normal and to what extent society will go to normalize people (or to lock them away somewhere if they can't be normalized). The role of the psychiatrist in this process both challenges and depresses Dr. Dysart, who hates the losses such normalization necessarily requires, and finds himself envying the passionate obsessions of his patient. The play is built wonderfully around symbolic use of masks and staging. The film version, on the other hand, is brutally realistic.