Cosmic Trigger the Play

by Daisy Eris Campbell

COSMIC THE PLAY, based on Robert Anton Wilson's classic autobiographical philosophical treatise, took the British alternative theater and counterculture scenes by storm in 2014 and 2017, with the ripples continuing to this day. And now, Ladies and Gentlemen, you too can experience Daisy Eris Campbell's wild opus. Take your seats, and strap in for a psychedelic magick trip, as Wilson and pals navigate Chapel Perilous via Playboy magazine, Discordian Initiation, Tantric sex, The Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool and some rollicking song-and-dance numbers. The official Hilaritas Press edition of the stageplay featuring dozens of vivid color photos! Intrigued? Inquire Within...

231 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 19, 2021

Reviews

[Richard Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anyone who saw the live show at the Cockpit Theatre in London will surely want to have this, which has the full text of the play and a number of pics that give a good idea of what the evening looked like. Illuminatus! fans love her already but the rest of the world hasn't quite caught on to what a bloody good playwright Daisy Eris Campbell is. Because this is far and away the best theatrical adaptation of a non dramatic text I've seen in - what is it? - forty years of reasonably regular playgoing. Three hundred-odd pages of the core source text, the autobiographical Cosmic Trigger, plus generous additional scenes from its sequels, from Illuminatus! and from the circumstances of that novel's dramatisation - all distilled down to less than three hundred pages of text, including the pix. And it seems (to me!) to me to make perfect sense and to be gripping throughout.

OK, I admit the obvious: I went to the production, I'd read the book and its sequels, I'd read Illuminatus! (when I was 15 - Oooh Mavis!) and I've read works by two or three of the other writers featured as characters. And there's a novel I've written that owes most of its central concepts to Wilson's work. So if anyone has a label stuck to his forehead saying 'Cosmic Trigger Target Audience' it's me. So of course reading it was a shot in the arm of purest joy. It would be, wouldn't it?

All the same, I think anyone with any kind of interest in all things countercultural, from Crowley to Leary to Alan Moore, will enjoy seeing how sensitively, sometimes movingly, Campbell has taken and transformed Wilson's text into a viable playscript.

Most importantly of all, the central event of the book, the murder of the Wilson's daughter, Luna, is handled with great sensitivity and understanding. While the live experience of Oliver Senton and Kate Alderton portraying Bob and Arlen's devastation is unbeatable, it's good to discover what great material Campbell had given these wonderful actors to work with.