The Dark Trip

     The whole show was about the best and the worst months in the life of one teenager - a young actor, former stoner, telling us his story live on stage. Only several mannequins helped him express his feelings and bring to life some other characters. Just a one man show. This stand-up story was intermitted by short videos projected on a big screen. 

     It all started when he was a casual 18yo guy recklessly enjoying every weekend at a party. He would try alcohol and weed, also known as light drugs. Quite cautiously, he was not interested in anything harder, such as cocaine or heroin. But one day, the party-man met a party-girl and they got on very well. Their relationship involved partying on a regular basis and it did not take much time until she offered him a drug called ecstasy, the “love drug.” He felt like a superhero under the influence of the magic pill. This led him to start visiting Techno-parties every weekend. However, the day after the pill, he would experience a feeling similar to a hangover and felt terrible.  You feel good only with the pill. He wasn't looking forward to anything but the feeling and being high was now the only sense of his life. After several parties, one pill was just not enough, so he tried a double dose and as you can predict, he overdid it. He ended up unconsciously lying on the floor and just a few steps away from death. When he came round, he realised what had happened and very slowly he started to feel angry about the previous months of his life.

     The worst blow had not been dealt yet though. It turned out that under the effects of the drug, his girlfriend, losing all self-control, cheated on him with his best friend. And now being bereft of both, he was to experience an even more tragic loss. Through his fault, his little sister got run over by a car and nearly died, forcing him to rethink his previous life and the consequences it had had on his most loved ones.

     Now this last part did not turn out to be based on the real events, as in his life, it was actually his mum who became an inspiration for him to start fighting the addiction. Having contracted cancer and being left at death's door step, he saw in her her struggle and desire to live on and while he was deliberately destroying his body, she was trying all she could to battle with chemotherapies and their consequences.

     He broke up with the girl after she cheated on him, left his drug-addicted friends and stopped taking the pills and he made new friends, friends who could enjoy life without taking drugs. This absolutely changed his life. He could give up drugs and the whole idea, for drug addicts, is that they can do it too and it is never too late. And for others it may serve as a warning not to be reckless with their life and health.

Matej Maličký (III.C)