The storyline for The Mad Women's Ball was inspired by actual events in the Salpetriere Asylum in Paris, where the patients were all women who had been deemed mad or hysterical. During the latter part of the nineteenth century a celebrated neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot, was famous for his work on female hysteria, and he presented a program of lectures to large numbers of fellow physicians where patients suffering from seizures were used as live demonstrations. The women would be hypnotised to encourage seizures on demand, and one or two of the patients became famous as a result of it. The patients in the hospital were commonly referred to as madwomen, and some had genuine reason to be there, but others found themselves locked up by their families if they became difficult to manage for any reason. Every year the Asylum held a ball and invited the citizens of Paris to come in and observe the patients who were dressed in colourful cost...