Review | ‘The Pitchfork Disney’ at Shoreditch Town Hall, London
By Will Stroude
This is the first time Philip Ridley’s seminal play has been staged in an immersive production and it’s also the first time director Jamie Lloyd has worked site specifically. The audience are led down stairwells and along corridors deep into the basement of Shoreditch Town Hall before arriving in what Ridley describes as ‘a dimly lit room in East London. Everything worn and faded.’ The venue and design by Soutra Gilmour works an absolute treat and the audience perch on rickety chairs and upturned boxes for a night of chilling and unsettling theatre.
In this claustrophobic subterranean world live siblings Presley (George Blagden) and Haley Stray (Hayley Squires), who after their parent’s death, have locked and bolted the door in fear of the outside world. Their relationship is based on medication, mutual fear, a love of surreal storytelling and a taste for chocolate. They’re safe, locked away, until Presley opens the door to the outside world and it comes crashing in. When it does it’s the stuff of nightmares.
Ridley famously writes massive monologues that make huge demands of the actor. An exceptional talent for storytelling is needed to take the audience on these dark, trippy and almost hallucinogenic journeys. Blagden and Squires sometimes miss the mark and in such an intimate setting less is most definitely more. When the manic energy drops and the actors simply speak to each other, the language soars and packs a punch. That said, both actors commit fully and give everything they have. It’s exhausting to watch and must be even more so to perform. They should be commended.
As Cosmo Disney, Tom Rhys Harries is cast to perfection. This menacing angel has a clear grasp on the text as he struts and preens like a peacock. His is a measured, nuanced and mesmerising performance. Seun Shote as Pitchfork Cavalier is truly terrifying. The sense of mounting danger goes through the roof as, clad from head to toe in a black gimp suit, he shakes, salivates and looks set to explode.
This play is all about fear – fear of the outside world, fear of each other, fear of ‘foreigners’… And with the world in it’s current state it couldn’t be more timely.
Rating: 3/5
The Pitchfork Disney runs until 18 March at The Shoreditch Town Hall. Tickets can be found here.
For more great deals on tickets and shows, visit tickets.attitude.co.uk
Words by Matthew Hyde
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