Because of demands for a full-length play from producers who recognized Jerome McDonough as one of the world's most creative and sensitive playwrights, he wrote B.A.T.S., his first 2-act full-length play. B.A.T.S. is peopled with the kind of free-spirited characters that make FAUGH and Roomers funny. And B.A.T.S. shows McDonough's perceptive analysis of human foibles and failures that give significance to Juvie, Addict, and most of his other works.

What happened to the women in Al Capone's life? Where have all the former gangsters gone? The Baroni Assistance & Transfer Service assisted people to die (by bumping them off) and then transferred them to secret graves in a nearby cemetery. But now crime kingpin Angelo Baroni is dead, and his two widows, Gina and Maria, are distressed because the cemetery is about to relocate its corpses, including all of Angelo's family secrets. Complicating the plot are a stage full of free-spirited and slightly batty characters, like Anraj Depaj Anraj (Skippy), the world's wimpiest terrorist; Harold, former hitman and now the family butler; a terribly confused TV reporter, and Victor and Velma, two quirky elevators which are never seen but frequently heard attacking their passengers. As you watch the play, you wonder: What is evil? What is good? Who wields the power in our world—Big Business? Organized Crime? The media? or could it be—LOVE? This funny, funny comedy for all groups just might have some answers. B.A.T.S. will clear all the bugs out of the stuffiest belfry.

The entire play takes place in the parlor of an old home in Chicago; the time is the present; costumes are modern with the exception of Skippy's combat jacket; Binky's various on-the-job costumes; Jeannine's disguises; Erik's TV news blazer.

See also: Mystery, Murder, and Mayhem