To describe this show as a love letter to drugs would probably undersell the level of pro drug propaganda that this tripe puts forward. Rave nation seeks to show the audience that MDMA and the rave culture is applicable and appropriate for all. Telling the story of how James, a primary school dance teacher, got arrested and his rationalisation of this.
The plot is thin and the acting even thinner. I simply don’t believe that people would react like this in the situation they are proposing. This production reinforces stereotypes and uses pretty much every cliché about drugs and teachers possible. The uptight headmistress who is lonely and lives with a cat, the female teacher from the army that turns out to be gay and the stoner dance teacher. I think people would have got up and left if they hadn’t warned everyone at the start never to turn around as there were lasers in the show: apparently we may have been blinded. This in hindsight might have been preferable rather than to continue watching the drivel on stage.
Part of me understands the reasoning behind a play like this and I think that is also why I found it so poor because, yes, there are a plethora of shows about the horrors of drugs and how they will truly destroy your life. So in some sense a tongue in cheek look at the lighter side of drugs seems valid but this show goes about it in totally the wrong way.
However all this paled in comparison to how the show finished. Yep, you've guessed it, a rave broke out - or at least would've done had it been a rave. Instead we were treated to a laser show for 5 minutes with the actors appearing on stage twice to dance about a bit. Surreal, unnecessary and extremely self indulgent. Somehow, all this managed to occur in the space of thirty five excruciating minutes. Introduction, conclusion. Nothing between - it all passed in a drugged-up haze.
