All You Need Is LSD review – Doctor Who meets Timothy Leary

Unity, LiverpoolDeparting from convention and reality, Leo Butler ’s simulated psychedelic experience crashes around with jolly abandonYou can imagine an Open University programme that sets out to explain the effects of hallucinogenic drugs. It would feature doctors in white coats talking about lysergic acid diethylamide alongside illustrations of molecule clusters and a few chemical formulae. What it almost certainly wouldn ’t do is mirror the experience of taking LSD. Where would it find the language to express the altered states and shifting perceptions of a mind-expanding trip?That ’s why playwrightLeo Butler takes what he calls a formal departure from his customary narrative style to fashion a self-aware theatrical collage full of postmodern meta-commentary. It also has a character jokingly called Leonora Butler, winningly played by a deadpan Annie Fitzmaurice. It sounds indulgent and, in this Told By an Idiot/Birmingham Rep production, it frequently is, but Butler ’s higher purpose (and I do mean high) is to replicate an encounter with a drug that itself induces a formal departure from reality.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Theatre Stage Leo Butler Culture Psychology Drugs Birmingham Rep Source Type: news