The Pitchfork Disney
From: Wednesday, 25th January 2012
To: Saturday, 17 March 2012
Our Review: 
Your Reviews:
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Synopsis
'You know why the ghost train is so popular? Because there are no ghosts. Once you know that you can make a fortune.' Ten years ago something terrible happened to Presley and Haley. Since then they have lived alone in their dead parents' house. But one night their safe isolation is shattered by the arrival of Cosmo Disney, who confronts them with the scariest question of all... what exactly happened to their parents? When it premiered at London's Bush Theatre in 1991, The Pitchfork Disney caused a sensation. With its barrage of barbaric and magical imagery, its gleaming dark comedy and catastrophic air of violence and sexual tension, audiences were left breathless, intoxicated and, in some cases, fleeing in terror.
Our Review:
Michael Coveney - 2 February 2012
As Philip Ridley told Whatsonstage.com the other day, the idea of “shut-ins,” or people who lock themselves away, is now very common. Twenty-one years ago, when this remarkable debut play was first seen at the Bush, Jean Cocteau’s Les Enfants Terribles seemed a more obvious point of reference.
The hideaways, 28 year-old twins Presley and Haley Stray, are boarded up inside their East End home. Outside, the world’s a wasteland with falling snow. Presley’s been shopping for their chocolate supply, and the days pass with medicine and stories.
“We all need our daily dose of disgust,” says the pretty boy intruder, the cockroach-eating entertainer Cosmo Disney (the physically flawless Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in a red spangly jacket), who disrupts the crypto-incestuous idyll with his looming associate in leatherette bondage gear, the invisible hulk, Pitchfork Cavalier (Steve Guadino).
Althoug...
Latest User Review
steveatplays - 25 February 2012:
This is masterful theatre, peering into the soul of today, despite being written two decades ago. For anyone who read the papers back then, stories that must have inspired various bits of this play can be recalled: how chocolate is comforting like sex because it prompts endorphins to be released, how a nutty Christian snake cult emerged in the USA, how the public was against homosexual marriage, the fears of homosexuals living in the closet, the efforts of Gorbachev to reduce cold war tensions and a possible nuclear apocalypse, but it took Ridley to dream all this into his prophetic nightmare of what human existence is really like. It is an existence of comfort seeking and fear avoidance, it is the locking of doors, it is the aquisition of money, it is binging on mind-altering substances like chocolate or heroin looking for comfort, it is the loss of belief in religion and any hope of a life after death. The horror of this empty existence is what Chris New captures so brilliantly in his jittery addled terrified portrayal of Presley, the comfort-craving subservient self-loathing closeted homosexual. Mariah Gale is almost too good as his twin sister, Haley, as her sterling performance really demanded more stage time. The double act of New and Gale is mesmerising, authentic, weird and brilliant. But this tantalising double act doesn't last, as Gale effectively exits the play when her character falls comatose for most of the running time. Still, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett takes over from Gale to good effect, as Cosmo Disney, the epitomy of the perfection and money and criticism in the outside world that is everything Presley fears to face. Stewart-Jarrett is wonderfully confident and homophobic and strange and perfect, albeit I felt he could have expressed slightly more malevolence, given his role as a living nightmare. That there is no typical narrative to this drama should be evident from the description above. If a conventional narrative structure is necessary to your enjoyment of theatre, stay away, but that would be a shame, as this is such a powerful vision from such a brilliant playwright so wonderfully acted. And the Pitchfork Cavalier is mindnumbingly terrifying when he finally shows up! :)...
Creative
Philip Ridley (Author)
Danielle Tarento (Producer)
Edward Dick (Director)
Bob Bailey (Design)
Malcolm Rippeth (Lighting)
Richard Hammarton (Sound)
Richard Hammarton (Music)
Richard Hammarton (Sound)
Jane Gibson (movement) (Director)
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