Leucotome The Musical (AKA: The Orbitoclast)

August 20, 2008

I have an idea for a stage musical called Leucotome: The Musical. Perhaps subtitled “The Tragic Life of Walter Freeman.”

Everything about it sounds like a lot of fun, and I think it would be a fantastic project. The only problem is that I know absolutely nothing about writing musicals, let alone music.

But, I can see it in my mind’s eye and it’s glorious. It’s the life and times of Walter Freeman (fictionalized for drama’s sake, of course).

Walter Freeman reinvented the lobotomy in the 1930’s. Before Freeman, the lobotomy was a horribly medieval process that involved drilling holes at the top of the victim’s forehead, and performing the lobotomy through each of them with a complicated and faulty device. After Freeman, the lobotomy, while still medieval, left fewer scars – because Freeman discovered that a lobotomy could be performed through the eyes of the subject with a glorified ice pick.

He called the new procedure the “Trans-orbital Lobotomy” and proclaimed it a miracle cure.

Freeman, a psychiatrist, started out working with a number of neurosurgeons to complete the process on hundreds of patients, but eventually he convinced himself that he was capable of performing the procedure himself.

Now, not only did he do it himself, he performed the procedure on his patients in his office!

The story is beautiful in the horror of it. Watts, his neurosurgeon friend, walked in on him performing the procedure once and completely turned his back on the well-meaning psychiatrist.

The story goes on, and I haven’t even gotten to the fictionalized parts of it yet – everything so far really happened!

All in all, Freeman was responsible for the lobotomies of over three thousand individuals. He was a little obsessive about it, and once performed 25 of them in 24 hours.

Freeman was a showman at heart and would often perform the procedures for medical audiences, where, after he grew bored with one-handed lobotomies, he started doing them with both hands at once.

The story is ripe for a musical retelling and I don’t think anyone would regret it…. Okay, well maybe I would.

If you or anyone you know writes music, is familiar with the process of musical storytelling, and is a little twisted, please let me know.

Posted by flowersjustin | Filed Under blog

Comments

Eyeteeth

I think this is a fantastic idea. Freeman is one of those larger-than-life guys and I think a musical would be a great vehicle for him. Did you know he wrote terrible poetry too? You could set some of it to music, perhaps. Or someone could. I can't. But I've been drawing stick-figure comics about him and posting them on my blog: http://eyeteeth.livejournal.com/

flowersjustin

Thank you!! - you're the first person to agree with me on this. And, thanks for letting me know about the poetry, you're right about it being a good place to start for the music.

You got my hopes up when you commented on the post. When I started reading, after I determined that it wasn't a spammy comment, I thought, "Oh my god, someone's going to offer to work on this with me!" But, it's okay, I know that it will eventually make it to the stage.

I went by your blog too - the comics are HILARIOUS!! Great posts too. I'm a little confused about the layout though - does the blog have more than one author? I ask because of the different avatars.

Eyeteeth

Yes, I'm sorry I can't help you with the musical part of your musical -- I can only offer book ideas, but I have lots of those! Probably too many. I don't think you'd even have to fictionalize Walter's life too much, it was pretty crazy. It was also pretty rich in traditional dramatic themes. Honestly, reading the El-Hai biography, I am reminded of nothing so much as Milton's Paradise Lost. Freeman starts out with some really good questions about how we treat crazy people, like isn't there something better we can do than lock them in an asylum until they die? But then he gets overcome by his sense of his own importance and before you know it he's doing two-handed lobotomies to get attention. Somewhere along the way his pride overwhelms his finer feelings. And meanwhile his wife's becoming an alcoholic and he's hitting the Nembutal pretty hard himself, so where do we draw the line between sick and well?

Also, one of his kids was swept over a waterfall and died before his eyes. Drama!

Thanks for checking out my blog. It's all by one person, me -- I just use different icons as the mood strikes me. I should get a Freeman icon, I talk about him so much these days.

By the way, congratulations on the birth of your lovely daughter! You gave her a lovely name to match.

guicharlie

Please read "My Lobotomy" by Howard Dully if you haven't already.

steve eneboe

I think you have a great idea, I find medical treatments of the 30's through 50's fascinating, and this time in medical history is most interesting. I'm here to help in any way I can. I think we should start a Watler Freeman webgroup.

Steve