Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: "It's About the World We Live In"

As part of its 30th anniversary celebrations, the Pleasance presents Lou Stein’s adaptation of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. First produced and performed in the 80s, the play is based on the homonymous book by Hunter S. Thompson, which follows journalist Raoul Duke (John Chancer) and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo (Rob Crouch), as they journey to 1970s Las Vegas to report on the Mint 400 – an off-road desert motorcycle race. Sooner rather than later, their attention starts to drift. They plunge into experimentation with various drugs at the tail-end of the hippie era, looking for the notorious yet elusive American Dream.

It would be natural to assume that adapting such a famous work – especially as it’s considered a milestone in the world of modern journalism – would seem a terrifying, daunting task. After all, an adaptation of a book to a script involves altering the source material in some way, in order to make it more visual and theatrical than a simple reading. So how to go about adapting a book this significant?

“The key to success is to go back to Hunter’s own words and the book,” explains Stein. “I think Fear and Loathing is his best work. Hunter’s language and the way he writes is so alive and full of energy. That’s what you need for a great play.”

Furthermore, he adds: “In terms of the dialogue that I’ve used in the play [taken from the book], you can’t improvise around it. I very often tell the actors ‘You have to treat it like Shakespeare. You have to treat it like the lines are really important.’ The lines are the energy of the show.”

Stein’s adaptation was first produced in 1982, to celebrate his founding of the Gate Theatre in Battersea (now known as Theatre503), sibling to the Gate Theatre in London. Thompson himself turned up to see the original production, and handed over exclusive rights to the play to Stein because he loved it so much. Clearly Stein's reverence for the original and his respect for Thompson’s words paid off.

“The first thing he said to me when the show was finished was ‘Why weren’t the drugs real?’” recalls Stein with a laugh. “Then he said it was like part of his life replayed for him. Don’t forget, all those characters are real – he experienced them.”

The book is generally considered autobiographical as Hunter S. Thompson shares his experiences of travelling to Las Vegas in 1971 for work with lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta. Nonetheless he writes as Raoul Duke, which seems to be both a nom de plume and also a separate character in this fictional realm. Raoul Duke is as much Hunter S. Thompson as William Lee was William Burroughs, or Harry Haller was Hermann Hesse in Steppenwolf; generally, a character who shares some but not all of his experiences and views, and doesn’t always express himself in an identical manner.

With the tenth anniversary of Thompson’s death approaching, this production could be seen as both a commemoration of his work and a celebration of his life as depicted through his writing. Of course, it could also be seen as a commentary on our lives; as Gob Squad’s Kitchen points out, the 60s and 70s seem to be that era of experimentation that is completely inescapable, and their influence – from Warhol to Bukowski –  is everywhere. Stein agrees: “It’s about the 70s, but it’s also about a view of the world we live in.”