Who’s Who of characters (real & fictional)
that appeared in Cosmic Trigger Play 2017.
Character Lists
Character Profiles
Real-Life People
Robert Anton Wilson (played by Oliver Senton) — aka Bob; the central character who’s extraordinary life and times are documented in his book Cosmic Trigger; co-author with Robert Shea of The Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Arlen Wilson (played by Kate Alderton) — Bob’s wife and fellow cosmic explorer. A poet, writer, and activist in the anti-war movement & early second-wave feminism. Arlen & Bob married in 1958 and had four children.
Luna Wilson (played by Dixie McDevitt) — aka Patricia; youngest daughter of Bob and Arlen; psychically closest to Bob of his children; became the first person to have her brain preserved by the Bay Area Cryonics Society.
Karuna Wilson (played by Carrie Marx) — aka Christina; oldest daughter of Bob and Arlen; current manager of Bob’s estate.
Graham Wilson (played by Leigh Kelly) — Son of Bob.
Robert Shea (played by Tom Baker) — Bob’s friend & co-worker at Playboy magazine; co-author with Bob of The Illuminatus! Trilogy.
Dr Timothy Leary (played by Jethro Skinner) — Harvard psychology lecturer; infamous advocate of LSD; writer on psychedelics, consciousness, transhumanism; dubbed “the most dangerous man in America” by Richard Nixon.
Aleister Crowley (played by Tom Baker) — aka “The wickedest man in the world”; 19th/20th c. occultist, poet, painter, & novelist; founder of Thelema; hugely influential today – voted 73/100 Greatest Britons.
William S. Burroughs (played by guest performers) — major postmodernist author, painter, and spoken word performer; a primary figure of the Beat Generation; the first person to notice the “23 Enigma“.
Alan Watts (played by Jethro Skinner) — British-born philosopher, writer, and speaker; known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy (particularly Zen Buddhism) for a Western audience.
Jano Watts (played by Carrie Marx) — Alan Watts’ third and final wife; aka Mary Jane Yates King.
Greg Hill (played by Leigh Kelly) — aka Malaclypse the Younger; co-creator with Kerry Thornley of Discordianism; at the time was head of a computer facility at one of the largest banks in the USA.
Kerry Thornley (played by Lee Ravitz) — aka Omar Khayyam Ravenhurst; co-creator with friend Greg Hill of Discordianism and Principia Discordia; linked by synchronicity (or madness) to JFK’s assassination.
Gary Kirstein (played by Josh Darcy) — shadowy figure who spins Kerry Thornley deep into Chapel Perilous; may or may not exist outside of Kerry’s nervous system… or may be CIA spook E. Howard Hunt (of Watergate fame).
Slim Brooks (played by Leigh Kelly) — Associate of Gary Kirstein; first person Kerry Thornley met in New Orleans; thought to be Jerry Milton Brooks, former Guy Banister employee and member of The Minutemen.
Jacques Vallée (played by Claudia Boulton) — venture capitalist, computer scientist, author, ufologist and former NASA astronomer; defender of the scientific legitimacy of the extraterrestrial hypothesis.
Albert Hofmann (played by Larry Sidorczuk) — Swiss scientist who was first person to synthesize & ingest the psychedelic drug LSD. Famously he rode home on a bicycle during his first intentional acid trip in 1943.
Ken Campbell (played by Josh Darcy) — English writer, actor, director and comedian known for his work in experimental theatre; staged The Illuminatus! in Liverpool 23/11/76, then in London at the National.
Prunella Gee (played by Carrie Marx) — wife to Ken Campbell, mother to Daisy; actress in TV, film, and stage; played Eris and Mavis in The Illuminatus!; hailed as Britain’s answer to Brigitte Bardot.
Chris Langham — English writer, actor, and comedian known for The Thick of It, People Like Us, and Not The Nine O’Clock News. Co-adapter, with Ken Campbell, of The Illuminatus!
Neil Cunningham (played by Jethro Skinner) — English actor known for The Draughtsman’s Contract and My Beautiful Laundrette; played Hagbard Celine in The Illuminatus!
Goat Man (played by Leigh Kelly) — The man who tended the live stage goats (and goats blood props) during Ken’s Illuminatus!, frequently seen naked backstage.
Fictional Characters
From The Illuminatus!
Barney Muldoon (played by Oliver Senton) — a detective who, with Saul Goodman, investigates the bombing of Confrontation magazine and disappearance of its editor. Thus the rabbit hole of The Illuminatus! begins…
Saul Goodman (played by Tom Baker) — A New York detective who, with Barney Muldoon, finds mysterious memos about a powerful secret society, the Illuminati.
George Dorn (played by Lee Ravitz) — staff writer for Confrontation magazine; later initiated into the Legion of Dynamic Discord by Mavis and Hagbard Celine; becomes the neophyte Chaoist set loose on the world.
Hagbard Celine (played by Jethro Skinner) — Charismatic Leader of the Legion of Dynamic Discord; captain of the Leif Erikson; author of Never Whistle While You Are Pissing; Fifth Illuminatus Primi.
Miss Portinari (played by Kate Alderton) — once a conservative Catholic idealist; now a wise tarot reader who understands the fallacy of the Illuminati; and to whom Hagbard will eventually abdicate.
Mavis (played by Carrie Marx) — an aspect of The Goddess; a transcendentally illuminated Marilyn Monroe; helps to initiate George Dorn into the Legion of Dynamic Discord; one of the former Illuminati Primi.
Simon Moon (played by Lee Ravitz) — Ancient Babylonian Chaoist set loose in modern time; avowed goal: to set termites at the bases of the pillars of civilization.
Padre Pederastia (played by Claudia Boulton) — leads SSS Black Mass; real name is Father James Flanagan; his brother Milo is a fourth degree Illuminatus.
The Goddess Eris (played by Claudia Boulton) — Greek goddess of chaos and discord; aka Discordia to Romans; patron deity of Discordianism; her symbol is the Golden Apple, with which she started the Trojan War.
Ishtar (played by guest performers) — worshipped by mortals for more than 5000 years, as the Goddess of fertility, love, war, and power, but especially sex.
FUCKUP (played by Alan Moore) — First Universal Cybernetic Kinetic Ultramicro-Programmer is the most intelligent computer in the world; designed by Hagbard; predicts future trends with I Ching sticks.
Sirian Lady (played by ?¿?¿?) — Robert Anton Wilson claimed to have been in regular contact with intelligent entities from the planet Sirius during and after the writing of The Illuminatus Trilogy…
Apple Pip (played by guest performers) — Just when you’re not expecting it, a surprise star bursts forth from Eris’ devious golden apple and a performance piece ensues…
