|
|
 |
| |
Katharine Bennett-Fox as Joanna |
Tune into Leary’s old wives’ tales
THE SIX WIVES OF TIMOTHY LEARY
The Etcetera Theatre
TIMOTHY Leary was the American writer, psychologist and, most famously, pioneering advocate of hallucinogenic drug use who coined the phrase: “Turn on, tune in, drop out.”
Philip de Gouveia’s semi-historical play at focuses on Leary’s relationships with six women over some 50 years.
Their monologues are presented as one side of a conversation with off-stage characters we never meet: a stranger at a party, a journalist, a lover, an unseen crowd and Leary himself.
The monologues, which take place across the decades, are segued with meetings between the women at Leary’s funeral in 1996.
Each of the wives is a markedly different character, but in these scenes they are united by the contradiction that they have drawn much of their strength from the man who would ultimately undo them.
The performances are universally compelling, with Hetty Abbott as Leary’s first, emotionally damaged wife, Marianne, deserving particular mention.
Delivering the play’s opening monologue she immediately owned the stage, teasing out her character’s seductive vulnerability in a ‘conversation’ with a kind stranger she meets at one of Leary’s parties.
Although some of the script is slightly overwritten – with talk of “existential soul-mates” jarring a little, for example – these instances are few and far between in a tight production, and are made all the more forgivable when you consider that this is de
Gouveia’s first play.
With the Six Wives of Timothy Leary, he has dodged the dramatic bullet of lazily glorifying a counter-culture icon and instead crafted a work that deals with universal themes of love, loss, broken relationships and their aftermath.
By keeping Leary and all but the wives off stage, he allows the audience to engage directly with the women behind the man – a welcome respite for anyone tired of listening to tall tales of the spiritual godfather of LSD.
Until December 9
020 7482 4857 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
