Theatre News

Jamie Lloyd to direct immersive Philip Ridley plays at Shoreditch Town Hall

The director will stage the pieces in the basement spaces at the east London venue

Director Jamie Lloyd
Director Jamie Lloyd
© Dan Wooller

Jamie Lloyd is to direct a double bill of immersive Philip Ridley plays in the basement at Shoreditch Town Hall.

One of the plays, Killer, will make its world premiere as part of the staging alongside a new production of Ridley's first stage play The Pitchfork Disney.

The Pitchfork Disney will star George Blagden, Tom Rhys Harries, Hayley Squires and Seun Shote and will open on 2 Februrary. Killer is a series of monologues starring John MacMillan and will open on 27 February. The pieces will run in rep from 28 February.

Lloyd's most recent productions include The Homecoming at Trafalgar Studios and a run of Doctor Faustus in the West End, starring Kit Harington.

The director said: "Philip Ridley is a maverick iconoclast of British culture… His innovative output has been a major influence on my own practice, and I am fascinated to explore the depth of his work via his first play alongside, and in the context of, his most recent theatre piece."

The Pitchford Disney follows Presley and Haley who have closed off their home in east London and find comfort in distorted fantasies. The darkly comic monologues in Killer feature stories about mysterious doorways, albino ostriches and a one-legged surfer who grows a new limb.

The Pitchfork Disney opens 2 February, with previews from 27 January and runs to 18 March. Killer opens 27 February and runs to 8 April.