As a playwright he has been described as "a pioneer of In-yer-face theatre",[10] which is a style and sensibility of drama that characterised many new plays that were performed in Britain during the 1990s.[11] Ridley's debut play, The Pitchfork Disney (1991), is considered by many to be a seminal work that influenced the development of this form of theatre,[12][13] with one critic even dubbing it "the key play" of the 1990s.[14] A great number of his plays for adults have been perceived as controversial, being met with both condemnation and high acclaim upon their initial reception. As a writer for the stage he is also recognised for creating an ongoing series of plays for young people (The Storyteller Sequence) and has written theatrical works for children and family audiences.[15]
As a songwriter he has created songs for his cinematic and theatrical works, frequently collaborating with composer Nick Bicât.[16] He and Bicât have also formed a music group called Dreamskin Cradle with singer Mary Leay.[17] Ridley has also written songs for composer Anna Meredith, particularly operatic work.[18]
Ridley is also a poet, photographer, and performance artist and has written drama for radio.[19]
Although Ridley creates stories through a wide range of media, he dislikes his work being categorised by the medium in which it is told, often referring to them belonging to each other as "different peaks of the same mountain."[20][21]
Biography
Ridley was born in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life until moving to another part of East London, Ilford.[22] Ridley studied painting at Saint Martin's School of Art, and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic of Oracle Foster.[23] One drawing from this sequence, "Corvus Cum", portraying a man ejaculating a black bird, was exhibited at the ICA in London while Ridley was still a student and – with calls for it to be displayed behind a curtain – became a cause célèbre.[24] Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films.[25]
His children's novels include Mercedes Ice (1989), Dakota of the White Flats (1989), Krindlekrax (1991) (winner of both the Smarties Prize and the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award), Meteorite Spoon (1994), Kasper in the Glitter (1994) (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Scribbleboy (1997) (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Zinderzunder (1998), Vinegar Street (2000), Mighty Fizz Chilla (2002) (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), and Zip's Apollo (2005).[26] He also has written two short stories for younger children, Dreamboat Zing (1996) and The Hooligan's Shampoo (1996).
Work in cinema
After graduating from St Martin's, Ridley created the short film, Visiting Mr Beak (1987), which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. He later created a short film for Channel 4 called The Universe of Dermot Finn (1988), which featured renowned actress Sheila Hancock and was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it was a critical success and went on to receive theatrical distribution.
While still a student at St Martin's, Ridley wrote a screenplay for The Krays (1990), which was directed by Peter Medak and starred real life brothers Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp, who previously were recognised for their band, Spandau Ballet.
Ridley has also written various monologues, many of which have been selectively performed together onstage. This includes Killer (consisting of the monologues Killer, Sledgehammers, and Vesper) performed in 2017, Angry (consisting of the monologues Angry, Okay, Bloodshot, Dancing, Now, and Air) performed in 2018, and The Beast Will Rise (consisting of the monologues Performance, Gators, Star, Rosewater, and Cactus) performed in 2020.
He has also written two plays for young children, Daffodil Scissors (2004) and Krindlekrax (2002) - a stage adaptation of his successful children's novel of the same name - as well as a play for the whole family, Feathers in the Snow (2012).[32]
Ridley was one of 25 contemporary British writers asked to contribute a scene to NT25 Chain Play, celebrating 25 years of the Royal National Theatre in London.
Work in music
Ridley's output as a lyricist has produced a wide range of songs, a number of which have featured in a variety of his plays, films, and novels. As a student Ridley participated in music by creating work with a band called Haunted Staircase (who released their double-sided record Flutters in the early 1980s) and also worked as a DJ at a nightclub.
As a songwriter he has regularly collaborated with the composer, Nick Bicât. For Ridley's film, The Passion of Darkly Noon, they created two songs: "Look What You've Done" (sung by Gavin Friday) and "Who Will Love Me Now?" (sung by PJ Harvey), the latter of which was voted as BBC Radio 1's Best Film Song of 1998. It was later covered by the techno/house band Sunscreem as Please Save Me, whose cover entered the UK top 40 chart, became a cult hit in clubs, and featured in the film South West 9. For his film Heartless Ridley and Bicât created ten songs (performed by Mary Leay, Joe Echo, and lead actor Jim Sturgess).
In 2010 Ridley and Bicât formed the music group, 'Dreamskin Cradle' (with singer Mary Leay). The group's first album, Songs from Grimm (2014), consisted of twelve songs inspired by female characters in Brothers Grimmfairy tales and was released on all major download sites.[33] Some songs from the album were performed as part of a live performance called Grimm Tales, which was developed by the St Paul's Institute and featured readings from the actress Jeany Spark, reflections from Canon Edmund Newell, and extracts from Brothers Grimm fairy tales adapted by poet laureateCarol Ann Duffy. Dreamskin Cradle have also released two singles: Fade and Float (written for Ridley's stage play, Tender Napalm) and Ladybird First (written for Ridley's stage play, Dark Vanilla Jungle).
Ridley also has written the libretto of an opera for teenagers titled Tarantula in Petrol Blue, composed by Anna Meredith, which had its premiere in 2009.
Other artistic work
Riley is a photographer, with his images appearing on the covers of a number of his published plays. He also has had a number of photography exhibitions mainly consisting of portraits of his friends and images of East London.
Ridley is also a poet, with some of his poetry published in a number of anthologies, and has earned a following for his ongoing series of performance poetry, Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures.
Ridley has won both the Evening Standard's Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. He is the only person ever to receive both prizes.[34]
He featured on BBC2's flagship arts programme, The Culture Show, on 2 March 2012.[35]
2014 - Mercury Fur - New Monologues (Four monologues written by Ridley to promote The Greenhouse Theatre Company's production of Mercury Fur transferring to the West End: Elliot, Naz, Lola, Darren. Presented on The Greenhouse Theatre Company's YouTube channel.[59])
2020 - The Beast Will Rise (a series of monologues in response to Coronavirus performed by the cast of Ridley's postponed play The Beast of Blue Yonder: Gators, Zarabooshka, Chihuahua, Origami, Wound, Telescope, River, Eclipse, Performance, Star, Night, Puzzle, Snow, Rosewater, Cactus. Presented online at The Beast Will Rise (Tramp)[60])
Radio plays
1989 – October Scars the Skin (script unpublished)
1989 – The Aquarium of Coincidences (script unpublished)
2010 – Heal You (music by Anna Meredith, sung by Juice Vocal Ensemble. Performed as part of Laid Bare: 10 love songs. Released as a single in 2014)
2016 – Love and Defection[62] (Mix-tape made for The Voice of Cassandre, a French Radio show which invites international artists to create their own mix-tapes.)
2011 – Behind The Eyes, The Sassoon Gallery, London. (Photographic portraits. Behind The Eyes was a community arts project inspired by Ridley's play Mercury Fur)[65]
Solo Shows
1985 – The Roaring Dreams Show, Tom Allen Centre, London.
1985 – The Feeling Landscapes Show, Bernard Baron Gallery, London.
1985 – The Glittering Gargolyes Show, The Fallen Angel, London.
1986 – Mermaids, Monsters and Sleeping Moons, Mermaid Theatre, London.
1986 – Recent Images, The Fallen Angel, London.
1986 – The Epic of Oracle Foster, Lamont Gallery, London.
1987 – Shy Moon, The Garden Gallery, London.
1989 – The Vinegar Blossoms, Lamont Gallery, London.
1987 – Short Story Embracing Verdi in the anthology Oranges and Lemons: Stories by Gay Men (edited by David Rees and Peter Robbins)[36]
1988 – Short Story Leviathan in the anthology 20 Under 35: Original Stories by Britain's Best New Young Writers (edited by Peter Straus)
1995 – Short Story Alien Heart in Projections 4½ (edited by John Boorman and Walter Donohue)[37]
1996 – Extract from The Fastest Clock in the Universe in the collection Live 3: Critical Mass (edited by David Tushingham)[72]
1997 – Short Story Embracing Verdi in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories (edited by Peter Burton)
1997 – Three poems: Someone Wants to Kill Me, The Seams and Getting Through the Day in The Bush Theatre Book (edited by Mike Bradwell)[73]
2000 – Extract from Krindlekrax in the collection Out of this world
2003 – Poem The Silver Hat in the anthology Love (edited by Fiona Waters)
2005 – Poem The Prince and the Snail in the anthology The Works 4 (edited by Gaby Morgan)[46]
2007 – Three poems: Dark Sky Craving, Waiting For Faces To Fall and I Am The Boy in the anthology Poems for the Retired Nihilist: Volume 2 (edited by Graham Bendel)[74]
2009 – Monologue Vesper in Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (edited by Aleks Sierz)
2021 – Short story Sunday in Mainstream: An Anthology of Stories from the Edges (edited by Justin David and Nathan Evans)[40]
The music track The Light at the End (Effect) by industrial/noise rock duo Uniform (from their 2017 LP Wake in Fright) uses a dialogue excerpt from The Reflecting Skin.[75][76]
In 2011 the Schema Arts Collective used Ridley's 2005 play Mercury Fur as the basis for a community arts project called Behind the Eyes, which took place at the Sassoon Gallery, London.[65] The project featured an amateur production of Mercury Fur, displayed artwork inspired by the play and Ridley himself collaborated by exhibiting a series of photographic portraits he had created of the production's cast. A behind the scenes documentary about the project called Mercury Fur Unveiled was also made and later broadcast on the Community Channel in 2013[77] and is free to watch online.
In 2007 performance pieces inspired by Ridley's semi-autobiographical Introduction to Philip Ridley Plays: 1 were presented by young directors under the title Gleaming Dark. This received a one-off performance at Trafalgar Studios in conjunction with the venue's revival of Ridley's play Vincent River.[69]
A quote from Ridley's children novel Dakota of the White Flats is used as the epigraph for chapter 6 of Cornelia Funke's young adult fantasy novel Inkspell.[78]
The German band Troy Flamingo are named after a character from one of Ridley's short stories.
The American band the Reflecting Skin is named after Ridley's film of the same name.
Reece Nagra's remix of Buju Banton's song Murderer opens with an expert of dialogue from The Krays and became a drum and bass anthem.
Phil Western's 1998 album The Escapist features excerpts of dialogue from The Reflecting Skin.
The Song Troy Flamingo from Madonna Hip Hop Massaker's 1995 album Teenie Trap is based on the title story of Ridley's 1999 book Flamingoes in Orbit.
Ridley's song Who Will Love Me Now? was covered by the techno/house band Sunscreem under the title Please Save Me. The song became a cult hit in clubs, entered the top 40 UK chart, top 30 US dance chart and featured in the film South West 9.
The song Omlagus Garfungiloops (from Coil's 1992 album Stolen & Contaminated Songs) features excerpts of dialogue from The Reflecting Skin.
The Scottish band River Head used a photography still from The Reflecting Skin on the cover of their 1992 single sided 7-inch EP Was Away / Haddit.[79]
Ridley's image Rainbow Kiss was used on the cover of the short story collection Oranges and Lemons: Stories by Gay Men, to which he also contributed as a writer.[36]
Ridley's charcoal drawing The Conversation was used as the cover to cult band Blowzabella's 1988 album Pingha Frenzy.
Steven Berkoff is an English actor, author, playwright, theatre practitioner and theatre director.
In-yer-face theatre is a term used to describe a confrontational style and sensibility of drama that emerged in Great Britain in the 1990s. This term was borrowed by British theatre critic Aleks Sierz as the title of his book, In-Yer-Face Theatre: British Drama Today, first published by Faber and Faber in March 2001.
The Reflecting Skin is a 1990 British-Canadian dramatic horror film written and directed by Philip Ridley and starring Jeremy Cooper, Viggo Mortensen and Lindsay Duncan. Described by its director as a "mythical interpretation" of childhood, the film weaves elements of vampirism, surrealism, black comedy, symbolism, and religious zealotry throughout its narrative about the perceptions and fantasies of an impressionable young boy in 1950s America. The Reflecting Skin places the majority of its action outdoors around the dilapidated farms and in the wheat fields of Idaho shot in idyllic sunlight which belies the dark secrets of the characters and plot.
David Harrower is a Scottish playwright who lives in Glasgow. Harrower has published over 10 original works, as well as numerous translations and adaptations.
Moira Buffini is an English dramatist, director, and actor.
The Pitchfork Disney is a 1991 stage play by Philip Ridley. It was his first professional stage work, having also produced work as a visual artist, novelist, filmmaker, and scriptwriter for film and radio. The play premiered at the Bush Theatre in London, UK in 1991 and was directed by Matthew Lloyd, who directed most of Ridley's subsequent early plays.
Ghost from a Perfect Place is a two act play by Philip Ridley. It was Ridley's third stage play and premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London on 7 April 1994. The part of Travis Flood was played by the veteran, classical actor John Wood, for which he received general acclaim and was nominated for 'Best Actor' at the 1994 Evening Standard Drama Awards. The production was the third collaboration between Ridley and director Matthew Lloyd, who had directed all of Ridley's previous stage plays and would go on to direct Ridley's next play for adults Vincent River in 2000.
Vincent River is a one act stage play by Philip Ridley. It was Ridley's fourth stage play for adults and premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London on 6 September 2000. The production was the last major collaboration between Ridley and director Mathew Lloyd, who had previously directed the majority of Ridley's other theatrical works.
Mercury Fur is a play written by Philip Ridley which premiered in 2005. It is Ridley's fifth adult stage play and premiered at the Plymouth Theatre Royal, before moving to the Menier Chocolate Factory in London.
Martin Andrew Crimp is a British playwright.
Skin is an 11-minute short film directed by Vincent O'Connell and starring Ewen Bremner and Marcia Rose. Produced by Tapson/Steel Films for British Screen and Channel 4 Films, it was filmed in September 1995. The screenplay was written in the summer of that year by British playwright Sarah Kane.
Anthony Neilson is a Scottish playwright and director. He is known for his collaborative way of writing and workshopping his plays. Much of his work is characterised by the exploration of sex and violence.
Leaves of Glass is the sixth adult stage play by Philip Ridley. It premiered at the Soho Theatre in London, England, on 3 May 2007.
Piranha Heights is a one act play by Philip Ridley. It is Ridley's seventh stage play for adults and premiered at the Soho Theatre, London in 2008. The production was the second collaboration between Ridley and Soho Theatre Artistic Director Lisa Goldman whom Ridley dedicated the play to in his preface of the published text. The play also featured Luke Treadaway in one of his earliest professional stage credits, who along with actor John Macmillan was filmed for Ridley's 2009 horror film Heartless, during the play's original run.
East is a 1975 verse play by Steven Berkoff, dealing with growing up and rites of passage in London's rough East End.
Nick Grosso is a British playwright, born in London in 1968 to Argentine parents of Italian and Russian extraction. His style has been described as that of a "latter-day Oscar Wilde on speed" by Sheridan Morley.
The Fastest Clock in the Universe is a two act play by Philip Ridley. It was Ridley's second stage play and premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London on 14 May 1992 and featured Jude Law in his first paid theatre role, playing the part of Foxtrot Darling. The production was the second collaboration between Ridley and director Matthew Lloyd, who would go on to direct the original productions for the majority of Ridley's plays until the year 2001.
Tender Napalm is a 2011 play by Philip Ridley. Ridley's eighth stageplay for adults, it premiered at The Southwark Playhouse, London on 19 April 2011.
Shivered is a two act play by Philip Ridley. His ninth stage play for adults, it premiered in 2012 at the Southwark Playhouse.
Plays International & Europe is a British online theatre magazine carrying reviews, interviews and features with photographs on theatre in London and the UK as well as internationally, with an emphasis on other European countries and the United States. The online Plays International & Europe succeeds the paper magazine version as of January 2022. It is edited by Jeremy Malies based in the UK.
References
↑ "Philip Ridley". Doollee: The Playwrights Database. Retrieved 10 September 2017.
1 2 Ridley, Philip (1995). "Philip Ridley: Alien Heart". In Boorman, John; Donohue, Walter (eds.). Projections 4½. London, Great Britain: Faber and Faber Limited. pp.252–260. ISBN0-571-17609-7.
↑ Ridley, Philip (2002). Philip Ridley: Plays One 'The Pitchfork Disney', 'The Fastest Clock in the Universe', 'Ghost from a Perfect Place'. Faber and Faber Limited. ISBN0-571-21056-2.
↑ Ridley, Philip (2012). Philip Ridley Plays 1: The Pitchfork Disney; The Fastest Clock in the Universe; Ghost from a Perfect Place. London, England: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. ISBN978-1-40814-231-8.
1 2 David, Justin; Evans, Nathan, eds. (2021). Mainstream: An Anthology of Stories from the Edges. Inkandescent. ISBN978-1-912620-08-1.
↑ Ridley, Philip (2012). "Introduction chapter LV". Philip Ridley Plays 1: The Pitchfork Disney; The Fastest Clock in the Universe; Ghost from a Perfect Place. London, England: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. pp.lx–lxi. ISBN978-1-40814-231-8.
↑ Ridley, Philip (1997). "Looking Back". In Mike Bradwell (ed.). The Bush Theatre Book. London, England: Methuen. p.75. ISBN0413713202.
↑ Ridley, Philip (1997). "Looking Back". In Mike Bradwell (ed.). The Bush Theatre Book. London, England: Methuen. p.77. ISBN0413713202.
1 2 Ridley, Philip (2005). Pie Corbett; Gaby Morgan (eds.). The Works 4. London, England: Macmillan Children's Books. pp.220–222. ISBN978-0-33043-644-1.
↑ Ridley, Philip (2007). Graham Bendel (ed.). Poems For The Retired Nihilist – Volume 2. Fortune Teller Press. pp.36–37. ISBN9780954773724.
↑ Ridley, Philip (2007). Graham Bendel (ed.). Poems For The Retired Nihilist – Volume 2. Fortune Teller Press. pp.52–54. ISBN9780954773724.
↑ Funke, Cornelia (2005) [2003]. Inkspell. Translated by Bell, Anthea (2005 USA Paperbacked.). Great Britain: The Chicken House. ISBN9781908435095. Retrieved 18 October 2018.
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