This second volume of Ridley’s stage plays confirms him as one of the
most imaginative, daring and unique voices currently working in
theatre. All four plays collected here resonant with Ridley’s trademark
themes – East London, storytelling, moments of shocking violence,
memories of the past, fantastical monologues, and that strange mix of
the barbaric and the beautiful he has made all his own.
Vincent River: ‘… a grieving mother and a traumatized teenager
meet as adversaries, rough each other up and eventually bond over a
barbaric act of cruelty…Ridley asks
questions, lots of them, about how people respond to the loss of
innocence in their lives, how they hold onto their sanity in the face
of savagery and how they fight to keep the bonds of humanity intact in
a mad, mad world.’ Variety
Mercury Fur: ‘…depicts a scary, post-apocalyptic London where, in
their struggle to survive, a group of youths are reduced to organising
parties that cater for the most perverted tastes.’ Independent
Leaves of Glass: ‘There is a different kind of murder going on here:
the murder of truth that goes on in all families to a lesser or greater
degree. As with nations, a family’s history is written by the victors.’ Guardian
Piranha Heights: ‘The extravagance of Ridley’s dark vision suggests a
dangerously confused society in which individuals seize on random
gobbets of semi-digested information and use them to construct their
own personal narrative.’ The
Times
