This six part podcast weaves together themes and thought provoking true life events with artistry and intelligence. Each episode is packed with the poignancy of our humanity.
On the one hand a brain washed young policeman, indoctrinated with a narrative he can’t see through, blindly following ‘orders’ in order to bring down an earnest attempt by visionary activists to try and ‘change the course of human history’ and ‘save humanity from inevitable destruction’. Accompanied by the sound of a beautiful Tuba, the farcical nature of their activity is captured muscially through witty and intelligent subtlety.
Then the dealer, a hedonistic chancer. A popular and generous hippy, despite claiming he knew his new ‘friend’ was a copper, did nothing to ring bells through the network he was part of and cashing in on. Doubtless if he’d known the close proximity of the main players behind the ‘conspiracy to flood the world with LSD’, he’d have acted differently. Hindsight is the luxury of the future. To call them a ‘gang’ is misleading.
A teenager, influenced by Hesse, Solzhenitsyn, Le Guin, the anti war movement and Eastern philiosophy aged seventeen thought, ‘I’ll be twenty in three years time and what have I done with my life?’ The innocence and naievity of youth. Driven by an urgent wish to be ‘part of the change’, she puts herself into ever increasing danger, seemingly oblivious to the threat to her life, purely as the result of being young, penniless (so powerless), and born female.
A mental health system only matched by the police force that crashes and seeks to destroy and control all it encounters that is threatening the status quo. They ( mental health services and the polce) sadly remained unchanged to this day, if anything, much is worse. The medical model, and the force of law, determined to hold up the structure of the industrial and capitalist system, is audibly present as the sound of doors being smashed down in order to prevent the actual ‘opening up’ of the ‘doors of perception’. Rather than change the way the system worked, they try to change the way people ‘think’ about life, frequently using blunt and cruel instruments. At this point, in the 60’s and 70’s, society was actually changing at the rate of knots, and as the dealer says, ‘ we were actually turning the super tanker round.’
The establishment were not going to have it. Even now, official records are inaccesible, even Freedom of Information attempts are refused and everything is locked down until 2070.
A visionary 1960’s academic, tuned in to the subtle energies of life, and a love for the precious earth, Christine Bott, loses her freedom for her dedication to making a change. With the repeated ring of the telephone, an audible ‘alert’ to the pending danger and crisis, echoes throughout the episodes, from the last century to this, the 21st century.
And the genious chemist, Richard Kemp, who believed he was fulfilling his life destiny. ‘ Now I know why I was born!’ Did the loss of the love of Christine, mean he lost hope?
ACID DREAM is an incredible postcard from the past. It shines light onto the messiness of a massive surreal and absurd attempt to change the world. Although the main protagonist may have given up hope, myself the teenager in the story, refuses to, which is why I participated in this broadcast.
The Production team , the writer, the actors, the contributers, have created an extraodinary gift for the listener to reflect on and to start to dare to dream again.
Based on the true memoirs www.theuntoldstoryofchristinebott.uk, the story artfully travels through time. Carefully crafted by the writer Tim Price and sensitively produced by James Robinson, this podcast is an echo of a dream from the past. The beautifully composed soundtrack by Gruff Rhys, and the wonderful sensitive and humourous narration by Rhys Ifans, is a gift to the listener. Hannah Murray voices Christine’s words, heard here for the first time, from beyond the grave. The various twists and turns of this story could never be made up, because its true life.https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0d6bs79
Being Human Being 