"A theatrical trip" - All You Need is LSD @ Factory Theatre

By Gabi Spiro, Arts Deputy Editor

A show about the history of LSD, claiming to take the audience on a theatrical trip, seems all too suited to the UoB student body.

'Told by an Idiot' and 'Birmingham Repertory Theatre' collaborate in All You Need is LSD, a play about psychedelic drugs, the pursuit of pleasure and Helen Mirren tripping in Stratford-Upon-Avon.

All You Need is LSD merges the concise history of LSD, from Albert Hofmann’s discovery of the drug to present day research, with the hallucinating figure of the playwright himself when he took LSD as part of a medical trial to research the play. With a definite sketch-comedy feel, and self-proclaimed ‘stream of consciousness bullshit', All You Need is LSD asks the audience to suspend disbelief and transcend time, space, and geographical location, to land in a confusing, psychedelic, delightful stage-world.

And this world truly does come to life, most obviously through an utterly stunning set, manipulated ingeniously by the four actors. They fall through Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit role; they climb up and down a stretched canvas piece; they even make a rotating door into a colossal record player, with a human arm as the needle; all with skill and style I’ve rarely seen before.

"Strong acting and clever direction run with a challenging script to create something quite original"

The play is funny, too, with absurd and impressive character work. Though sometimes a little too fast-faced to keep up, All You Need is LSD really pushes its actors to their limits. Each one plays a multitude of roles, switching genders, ages and accents in a feat of characterisation, and as testimony to their skill and directorial brilliance.

Yet the script, at points, is grating – by the sixth self-referential line, after the likes of ‘multimedia, yeah, people love that’, and ‘don’t ask me, I’m just a theatrical device!’, Leo Butler’s meta points start to feel overstated. He seems to self-indulgently declare his own cleverness whilst bracing himself against criticism, with the punchline of many jokes aimed only at People-Who-Know-About-Theatre.

All You Need is LSD is certainly an entertaining hour and a half. The way it merges absurd comedy with drug facts, popular culture references, and Butler’s anecdotal, relatable experience gives it something for everyone. Strong acting and clever direction run with a challenging script to create something quite original. And I certainly leave the theatre better educated about LSD.

In blurring the distinction between construct and reality, All You Need is LSD encourages the audience to question their own truth, to challenge the notion that higher bodies should regulate personal pleasure, and to go out and take some hallucinogenics.

★★★★

Feature image: Unsplash / Lurm

Did you get to see 'All You Need is LSD'? Share your experience with us in the comments below or on social media.

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