We survived Ketamine: The Musical

A musical about ketamine is unconventional, silly, hilarious and definitely brilliant.

A giant bag of ket floating above the audience? Check.

Naked crowd members in a bubble bath? Check.

A woman hanging from the rafters giving birth to keys? Check.

But wherein does the brilliance come in? Yes, when a musical focusing on ketamine announced its impending arrival in New York, it wasn't what most expected, but a lighthearted approach to the culture surrounding ketamine use is beneficial, especially since education and awareness is key when dealing with drugs of this nature. That being said, Ketamine: The Musical undoubtedly pushed the boundaries of performance art and was a wild ride that no one could have expected.

The bohemian collective at House Of Yes in Brooklyn are known for going against the grain and marching to the beat of their own drum. Their events tend to focus on presenting a surreal and immersive atmosphere, taking the audience away from reality. So why put together a show about ketamine?

The idea was born when the crew was acting especially eccentric at a festival. A bystander who noticed this remarked, “What is this, Ketamine, the musical?” The dissociative drug produces a sensation of being detached from the physical world, causing users to feel like they are in a mushy trance.

However, the resulting performance of the musical was not lacking in energy whatsoever, and in fact, was quite the opposite.

Ketamine: The Musical is centered around a protagonist on his journey through the many phases of being high on K. The play opens with a big bag of ket floating over the crowd, with a clown dressed in all white ripping open the bag and sprinkling it all over a woman. Go on then...

She proceeds to crawl through the audience and then is lifted into the air to perform death defying aerial maneuvers hanging from a ring. Mixmag looked on in awe, praying she wasn’t actually on the fluffy powder at this point.

With a focus on delivering an artistic interpretation of the emotions, activities and conceptions that are commonly associated with ketamine use, the show consisted of 12 acts. Standout moments included a depiction of the “After After After Hours” crowd with dancers tweaking out and transitioning into a ket induced version of ‘Thriller’ (Why not?), a naked woman hanging from the curtains giving birth to keys while two babies ate them as they fell to the floor (Standard Tuesday afternoon at Mixmag Towers) and an emotionally-charged tandem aerial performance that was simply miraculous.

Did we mention the K Hole intermissions and a raffle with the prizes that included having members of the audience get completely nude and enjoy a bubble bath cuddle puddle in the middle of the crowd?

The show also included an audience member sporadically yelling out “Yay, ketamine!” at the top of her voice, a deeply philosophical rap about our existence and what we do with our time being alive, peaceful and meditative musical performances that had members of the audience nodding out – and lines of cocoa powder and Kava cocktails in the lobby. The English National Opera, this was not.

So what did we learn from this bizarre, immersive and dissociative spectacle?

There are both light and dark moments during a ketamine-induced high. Don’t try to have sex when on the powder. And as Nate, the existential rapper said: Y.L.A.L.O – you live at least once – so enjoy it while it lasts.

Then enjoy it again.

[Photos: Todd Seelie for Village Voice]

Harrison is Mixmag's East Coast Editor. Follow him on Twitter here