By Philip Ridley, by little death productions
Theatreworks, August 31 to Sept 16, 2007
Reviewer: Kate Herbert on Aug 31, 2007
Mercury Fur by Philip Ridley, if it were on television, would have a list of warnings: contains violence, language, drug use, adult themes and perhaps we could add obnoxious, nasty young people.
It depicts a war-torn world in which the morally bankrupt torture and kill unwitting victims for the entertainment of the wealthy and powerful. Murder becomes an extreme sport.
Two brothers, Elliot (Luke Mullins) and Darren (Xavier Samuel) clean an abandoned flat in preparation for a party to which the threatening Papa Spinx (Gareth Ellis) brings an excitable Party Guest (Paul Ashcroft) and the blind Duchess (Fiona Macys). Lola the transvestite (Russ Pirie) and young Naz (Aaron Orzech) dress up the drugged victim, AKA Party Piece (Wazzzadeeno Wharton-Thomas) for his impending ordeal.
Although Ridley emerged out of the 1990s British grunge movement, the form and language of Mercury Fur owes a debt to A Clockwork Orange of the 1960s or the violent pornography of the 18th century Marquis de Sade. Every new work is derivative and by now we are virtually unshockable. Writers put more and more unpleasant things on stage to make their reputations or to jolt us into some visceral response.
Having said all that, director Ben Packer and his cast portray this degenerative and disturbing world with energy and commitment. Mullins is compelling and restrained as Elliot and holds the piece together. Samuel plays the damaged Darren with a pained and distracted desperation. Orzech finds a sweet and trusting naivete in Naz and Pirie is entertaining and creditably underplayed as the drag queen, Lola.
The world of Mercury Fur could be a post-apocalyptic future or any war zone in our time. History has become bastardised: the boys think that President Kennedy started World War Two and was married to Marilyn Monroe. The community is decimated by poverty and drug use: everyone routinely eats hallucinogenic butterflies that induce a variety of delusional states.
Packer creates a claustrophobic and demented world with a sense of impending doom. The constant ominous soundscape (Kelly Ryall) could be a sandstorm, butterfly wings or the roar of bombers overhead while Adam Gardnir’s design and Danny Pettingill’s lighting are inventive and atmospheric.
There are some laughs in this production but Mercury Fur is more of an assault to the senses than titillation.
By Kate Herbert
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