Heathcote Williams (1941-2017)


"Elizabeth Taylor came to Playland last Tuesday, she asked me to take her to the back. I had to chew her clitoris for seven hours. I broke out in a rash all over my body."

AC/DC is an anarchic theatrical work that attacks the influence of the media and the constant distortion of information. Drawing on the schizophrenic feeling of being controlled by external forces, the work stages a metaphor of a world in which the media manipulate people's minds.
Williams himself would define the work as a “battle for the psychic territory.” A battle primarily fought on the field of language.
Based on the conviction of the 1960s, fueled by psychedelics, that other forms of non-verbal communication exist—such as telepathy and synchronicity—language is pushed to its limits. Furthermore, Williams uses a vocabulary largely made up of neologisms and unknown words, such as psychophagic.

AC/DC di Heathcote Williams, directed by Gary Houston, 1972


In the finale, the work culminates with a trepanation:
“Cleanse all your bad vibrations. Let the spirits out through the hole—this was the Greek version. Eight orifices in your head, now. They make you respond to electromagnetic fields not yet discovered. Your brain has an erection.”

Restore intracranial vibrations”, AC/DC by Heathcote Williams, Magic Theatre, San Francisco, 1971




AC/DC, Heathcote Williams, Great Britain, Gambit, London, 1971