All You Need is LSD

Leo Butler

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781350101265
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Escritura de obras de teatro

The drug laws in this country- the drug laws IN THE WORLD - all stem from this attitude that pleasure is a bad thing... In 2015, acclaimed British playwright Leo Butler accepted an invitation from former Government drugs tsar, Professor David Nutt, to be a guinea pig in the world's first LSD medical trials since the 1960s. Monty Python, Being John Malkovich, and Alice in Wonderland all resonate in this exhilarating and original comedy as we watch Leo jump down the rabbit-hole of a medical trial in search of enlightenment - and a good story. Along the way he meets an array of characters from Aldous Huxley and The Beatles, to Steve Jobs and Ronald Reagan, whose own stories in the history of LSD are hilariously and poignantly uncovered. Does the world still need a psychedelic revolution? And will Leo make it back home in time for tea? Part history, party wild fantasy, this darkly humorous new play illuminates the drugs debate that won't go away and examines the freedom we have to make our own choices in life, and death.

Characters

Leo

Professor Nutt

Dr Timothy Leary

Dr Albert Hofmann

Dr Robin

Dr Mendel

Dr Mark

Aldous Huxley

Laura Huxley

Dr Bernstein

Dr Ronald Sandison

Doctor Who

Susan

Ian

Alice (in Wonderland)

Leo’s Wife

Leo’s Daughter

+

various other characters

Note on Performance

The play can be performed by as many or as few actors as you’d like. Stage it in any way you want.

One of the Actors enters, dressed as the White Rabbit – holding the White Rabbit’s head under his/her arm.

ActorUm, good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the (name of theatre) for tonight’s production of All You Need Is LSD by Leo Butler. Because the play includes a few, um, some controversial themes we will be changing the author’s name to protect his identity. Well, enjoy the show and make sure to turn your phones off.

The Actor puts on the White Rabbit’s head and hops across the stage.

White RabbitOh dear, oh dear, I shall be too late!

The White Rabbit jumps down the rabbit hole.

Alice (in Wonderland) enters, and follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit hole.

Then . . .

Professor Nutt’s office at Hammersmith Hospital. He and Leo are in the middle of a meeting.

LeoYeah so I’ve, erm . . . I’ve written a few plays, a . . . Fair few plays already, the last ten–fifteen years or so.

Prof. Nutt Cool, that’s cool Leo, um . . . – Leonora.

LeoYeah, and it’s a subject I’ve always wanted to write about really. And what with you – Professor – being somethin’ of an expert on the subject . . .

Prof. Nutt Well, we’re always happy for a friendly new face here at the Hammersmith Imperial Hospital. Livens the place up a bit.

LeoYeah, thanks, erm, . . . Well, like I say I’ve written a fair few plays and it just so happened that I went to the Birmingham Rep Theatre, and I met up with the artistic director there, Roxana Silbert, and we got talking about a possible commission and, and all this . . . And then she said –

Roxana Silbert Well, what plays have you got?

Leo– . . . and I listed them off and mentioned my LSD play, which is provisionally titled ‘All You Need Is LSD’.

Roxana Silbert ‘All You Need Is LSD?’

LeoYeah, that’s right! ‘All You Need Is LSD’.

Roxana Silbert That’s very interesting, Leonora.

Prof. Nutt Based on the Beatles pun.

LeoYeah! – Yeah, of course, being deliberately provocative or whatever.

Prof. Nutt No, it’s nice. Actually no, that’s clever, it’s a really clever pun, I like that.

LeoOh well, you know –

Prof. Nutt Well it’s actually a double pun. All you need is love, all you need is pounds shillings and pence. Haha, genius! He doesn’t even know he’s making a brilliant pun! That’s why you’re a playwright and I’m a scientist!

LeoAnd, yeah, I mentioned this as one of the ideas I wanted to write about and I thought ‘well she’s really not going to go for that one’ –

Roxana Silbert – Well, we’d like to go for that one. We’re really interested in commissioning it –

Leo– and I’m like –

Prof. Nutt Two thumbs up.

LeoYeah, cause I’d explained to her partly what I wanted it to be was sort of departure formally –

Roxana Silbert It’s a sort of departure formally, and I’m intrigued, Leona. I mean, most of the plays you’ve written –

Roxana/Leo– tell stories, –

Leo– erm, . . . made-up, fictional . . . sort of –

Roxana Silbert Bleak, social realism.

Prof. Nutt Sounds great.

LeoYeah, and I suppose I wanted this one to be a bit more . . .

Prof. Nutt Family friendly?

LeoWell, journalistic I suppose.

Prof. Nutt Oh –

LeoNo, well, I don’t know yet, it’s changing shape all the time, it’s sort of a whole . . . mash-up of different styles. Journalistic sounds a bit . . . – I mean, there is drama in there.

Prof. Nutt Fantastic.

LeoBut, you know? To really go back. To go back and show the history of LSD from –

Prof. Nutt From Hofmann.

LeoFrom Hofmann, yeah.

Prof. Nutt The accidental ingestion at his laboratory.

LeoAbsolutely.

Prof. Nutt And then his seven-hour bike home that was actually just a few minutes.

LeoThe bike ride, yeah! And maybe also to talk about his trips to South America –

Prof. Nutt Yes, to work out what all these different drugs were that had been used for millennia, and discovering that they all worked in the same way. Why didn’t he ever win the Nobel Prize? It’s sad isn’t it?

LeoVery sad, yeah.

Prof. Nutt Well because he was too controversial.

LeoYeah –

Prof. Nutt And that’s why I’ll never get it either.

LeoWell, you never know.

Prof. Nutt (laughs)No, I do, I do know! Don’t worry about that!

LeoYes, so there’s drama and my own personal experiences combined with the science, the history and everything. I’m sort of making it up as I go along.

Prof. Nutt Have you got Huxley? You’ve got Albert Hofmann, you’ve got Aldous Huxley –

LeoYeah, well I’ve dramatized what I think is that key moment of the death of Aldous Huxley with his wife.

Prof. Nutt Fantastic, that is so moving when you read about it.

LeoYeah, no –

Prof. Nutt And that’s actually how I got interested, that’s how I started training in medicine when I first read about that and I thought ‘Wow, this is a nice w...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Characters
• The Ballad of Timothy Leary
• Methuen Drama Student Editions
• Methuen Drama Modern Plays
• eCopyright