Press release
Ridiculusmus presents its new show about post-traumatic stress and the
therapeutic effects of MDMA
Give Me Your Love
UK premiere: Battersea Arts Centre 12 - 30 January 2016
Press night: 13 January at 7.30pm
Since 2013 “seriously funny” theatre specialists Jon Haynes and David Woods of
Ridiculusmus have turned their attention to bio-medical science, creating performances
which explore innovative therapeutic approaches to mental health. Their new show Give
Me Your Love looks at the healing potential of altered states of consciousness and the
use of psychedelic drugs, in particular MDMA (ecstasy), for patients traumatised by
combat stress.
Based on real-life testimonies of war veterans and groundbreaking medical research,
Give Me Your Love is funny, fragile and profound. It tells the story of ex-soldier Zach
who has withdrawn into a cardboard box in a kitchen in West Wales. His friend Ieuan
arrives offering recovery - in the form of a capsule containing 3,4
methylenedioxymethamphetamine with which he claims to have successfully treated his
own post-traumatic stress.
Parachuted into their recently fractured pasts, Zach and Ieuan swing between
dreamboat heroism and woozy enlightenment while engaging in disorderly conversation
about patriotism, conflict and supermarket shopping.
During the development of Give Me Your Love, Ridiculusmus talked to cutting edge
researchers in the US about their work on trauma therapy using MDMA. They also
spoke to veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Falklands as well American soldiers who
had undergone the treatment.
Give Me Your Love is the second show in a trilogy which began with The Eradication of
Schizophrenia in Western Lapland exploring the Open Dialogue approach to psychosis.
Listings
Ridiculusmus’ Give Me Your Love
Tuesday 12 – Saturday 30 January (no shows on Sundays) at 7.30pm
Battersea Arts Centre, Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TN
Box office: 020 7223 2223 / www.bac.org.uk
Tickets: £15/£12 concessions
Post-show discussion Stress, Distress and Disorder on 20 January; chaired by Dr Ben
Sessa with a panel of Prof. Peter Kinderman, Anne Cooke and Lee Hayward from Save
Our Soldier, Jon Haynes and David Woods.
Friday 5 February at 7.30pm
Gulbenkian, Canterbury
University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NB
Box office: 01227 769075 / www.thegulbenkian.co.uk
Tickets: Full £12.50/ GulbCard £10.50/ Student £8.50/ GulbCard Student & Gulbenkian
Education Network £7.50
Post-show discussion
Running time: approx. 60 mins
Notes to editors
1. Ridiculusmus - Jon Haynes and David Woods – is an award-winning theatre
company that has established an international reputation for being both serious
and funny. Since 1992, Ridiculusmus has created over 25 original productions
which have toured around the world from the Barbican in London to a village hall
in Malawi. The “serious comedy” they practise is an organised chaos
underpinned by decades of painstaking research that has taken them from
psychiatric hospitals in India to groundbreaking schizophrenia workshops in
Lapland. They were awarded doctorates in Drama Practice as Research by the
University of Kent in 2006. Publications include Tough time, nice time (2007),
Total Football (2011) and The Eradication of Schizophrenia in Western Lapland
(2014), all with Oberon Books. www.ridiculusmus.com
2. Research and development for Give Me Your Love took place at the National
Theatre Studio, London and Arts House, Melbourne. The MDMA research has
been co-ordinated by Ridiculusmus’ scientific collaborator Dr. Ben Sessa with
Professor Michael Mithoefer, medical monitor for clinical trials in the US and Brad
Burge from the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies who
arranged interviews for the company with US war veterans.
3. Dr Ben Sessa is a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist who has
published in medical journals on the therapeutic potential of psychedelics and
has campaigned to see these substances return to the mainstream
pharmacopeia. In 2008 he became a Research Associate under Professor David
Nutt at Bristol University where he consulted on MDMA for the Advisory Council
on the Misuse of Drugs and worked on a human hallucinogen study, becoming
the first person in the UK in 33 years to be legally administered a classical
psychedelic drug. He now leads the UK's first MDMA Psychotherapy study at the
University of Cardiff. http://www.drsessa.com
4. Give Me Your Love is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council
England; the Wellcome Trust; Royal Victoria Hall Foundation; Battersea Arts
Centre; the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts;
Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne University and the City of Melbourne
through Arts House and its Culture Lab programme.
6 November 2015