Out of Line Theatre’s The Sandwich >>> Neo-psychedelic Theatre Work Inspired by the Discovery of LSD

What’s happening in Winnipeg? First it is listed as one of the up and coming hot beds for art and now a LSD theatre production inspired by Albert Hoffman’s discovery of LSD has popped up there titled The Sandwich: Transforming Consciousness Bite by Bite. Sounds like an influx of psychedelics might be responsible for fuelling the arts in a once unknown Canadian prairie town. Learn more below and check it out from May 9  to 12 at the Out Of Line Theatre if you are from or passing through Winnpeg:

Imagine taking a bite of a sandwich and having everything change.

From the wonderfully warped minds of Out of Line Theatre co-artistic directors Mia van Leeuwen and Ian Mozdzen comes The Sandwich: Transforming Consciousness Bite By Bite, a neo-psychedelic performance work inspired by Albert Hoffman’s serendipitous discovery of LSD. Billed as “part Alice in Wonderland, part Requiem For a Dream, part Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the piece, as van Leeuwen explains, “explores altered states as mind-opening experiences in which we may find some truth.”

The Alice-on-acid concept was planted in van Leeuwen’s mind three years ago. “I was talking to someone about the discovery of LSD, and he told me a bit of a wrong story,” she explains. “He was like, ‘Hey, did you know there was this scientist and some LSD fell onto his sandwich and he ate it?’ That concept blew my mind. As I researched it, I learned he got it sort of right and sort of wrong.”

Here’s the real story: in 1943, Hoffman, a Swiss chemist, absorbed a small amount of an unknown substance through his fingertips while attempting to re-synthesize ergot, a fungus that grows on diseased rye (“hence the sandwich reference,” van Leeuwen says). Hoffman’s resulting hallucinatory experience went down in the books as the first-recorded LSD trip.

“What I was fascinated by was what happened after its discovery,” van Leeuwen says.

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View concept video here >>>

THE SANDWICH: TRANSFORMING CONSCIOUSNESS BITE BY BITE
Out of Line Theatre
May 9 – 12,
Atomic Centre (167 Logan Ave.)