Theatre: A journey of discovery with All You Need Is LSD at The Lowry

If you prefer your plays to take you on a journey of discovery, perhaps even provide you with an altered state of consciousness, then might we be so bold as to suggest All You Need Is LSD. The Birmingham Rep co-production, alongside 25-year-old critically acclaimed theatre company Told by an Idiot, is the brainchild of acclaimed British playwright Leo Butler, whose provocative new script came about after he was invited by former Government drugs tsar Professor David Nutt to take part in the world’s first LSD medical trials since the Sixties. Not as crazy an idea as you might first think, with the likes of author and lecturer Michael Pollan extolling the virtues of a psychedelic approach to the relief of conditions such as depression, addiction and anxiety in his latest tome How To Change Your Mind. Butler’s story, meanwhile, leads us down a rabbit hole of hallucinogenic fantasy, and hallucinogen history, introducing us to, of course, Aldous Huxley and The Beatles, but also to Steve Jobs and Ronald Reagan. Funny, dark and always original, Butler shows that the drugs debate is still going strong. Whether his play changes your mind – well, that’s up to you.

Tue 6 – Sat 10 Nov, The Lowry, Pier 8, The Quays, Salford M50 3AZ. Tel: 0843 208 6000, 8pm, £10-12, www.thelowry.com