Mercury Fur

Mercury Fur
File:Td mercury fur.jpg Mercury Fur imagery by Theatre Delicatessen
Written by	Philip Ridley
Characters	6 male, 1 female and 1 transgender female
Date premiered	10th February 2005
Place premiered	Drum Theatre, Plymouth
Original language	English
Subject	Abuse, Addiction, Drugs, Choice, Gang violence, Language, Love, Manipulation, Memory, Psychochemical warfare, Sexual violence, Social disintegration, Storytelling, Survival.
Genre	In-yer-face theatre
Setting	"A derelict flat in a derelict estate in the East End of London."

Mercury Fur is a play written by Philip Ridley which premiered in 2005. Set against the backdrop of a dystopian London, the narrative focuses on a party at which the torture and murder of a child is the main entertainment. It is Ridley's fifth adult stage play. It premiered at the Plymouth Theatre Royal, moving to the Menier Chocolate Factory in London, in 2005.

It was directed by John Tiffany as part of the This Other England season of new writing by Paines Plough and Theatre Royal, Plymouth in England. The part of Elliot was played by Ben Whishaw, who had become famous the previous year as the youngest modern Hamlet in Trevor Nunn's production at the Old Vic Theatre in London.

The play is the first entry in the unofficially titled "Brothers Trilogy", being followed by Leaves of Glass and Piranha Heights.

Ridley dedicated the play to his agent Rod Hall before he was murdered in May 2004.

Synopsis

Mercury Fur is set in a post-apocalyptic version of London's East End, where gang violence and drugs - in the form of hallucinogenic butterflies - terrorize the community. The protagonists are a gang of youths surviving by their wits. They deal the butterflies, selling them to their addicted customers from locations such as the now burnt-out British Museum. Their main source of income, however, is holding parties for wealthy clients in which their wildest, most amoral fantasies are brought to life.

The play, during nearly two uninterrupted hours, centres on a party which revolves around the sadistic murder of a child, enacted according to the whims of a guest. The gang ultimately has to face the question of how far they are willing to go to save the people they love.

Characters

Elliot - Aged 19, he is the main facilitator in preparing the parties as well as being the chief dealer in butterflies which he sells in an ice cream van. He however has only ever taken one, meaning he has retained all his memories from before the butterflies arrived. He hurls a great deal of verbal abuse at Darren but also shows genuine love for him.

Darren - Aged 16, he is Elliot’s brother and assistant. He is addicted to the butterflies which have resulted in him having memory loss.

Naz - A young looking 15-year-old orphan who is a regular customer of Elliot's. He like many of the other characters has severe memory loss through butterfly addiction. He happens across the party by accident and wants to help the gang, much to the dismay of Elliot.

Party Piece - A ten-year-old Pakistani boy. He is the victim prepared for the Party Guest.

Lola - A 19-year-old transgender female. She is skilled in designing costumes and make-up which she makes for the parties. She is in a romantic relationship with Elliot.

Papa Spinx - 21 years old, he is the Leader of the gang and Lola's brother. He looks after the Duchess who it is suggested he has an intimate relationship with. The rest of the gang are mostly fearful of him.

Duchess - A frail and blind 38-year-old woman. She gets her name from having been led to think that she is a duchess of a country which she believes due to not being able to see. She has also mixed up her life with the character of Maria from The Sound of Music. It is heavily suggested that she is Elliot's and Darren's mother.

Party Guest - 23 years old. The party revolves around his fantasy where he is a soldier in the Vietnam War who for his own sexual gratification tortures with a meat hook a child Pakistani version of Elvis Presley singing Love Me Tender in a gold two-piece suit.

Response and Legacy

The play became a huge cause célèbre when it premiered, with at least 10 walkouts reported each performance of the show's original run, and even Ridley's publishers of ten years, Faber and Faber, refusing to publish the text.

Critical response was almost as fevered as the events on stage with Charles Spencer of The Daily Telegraph declaring everyone concerned with the production had been 'degraded' and, more controversially, that Ridley was 'turned on by his own sick fantasies.'

However, there was also critical support for the play, with John Peter drama critic of The Sunday Times, urging people to see it: 'It is a play you need to see for its diagnosis of a terror-stricken and belligerent civilization. I recommend it strongly to the strong in heart.'

Accordingly, the play set critics at odds with each other, with Guardian front liner Michael Billington insisting that the portrayed 'social breakdown ... flies in the face of a mass of evidence one could produce to the contrary', whilst Lyn Gardner and Miranda Sawyer joined the ranks of those siding with the lyricism of the piece.

Despite this controversy – or perhaps because of it – the play sold out on its initial run and, by the end, was playing to an enthusiastic young audience. It has since created a cult following of its own, with theatre makers keen to retell its story and audiences curious to see the story being told.

On seeing the original production dramaturg and theatre director Lisa Goldman described the play as “one of the greatest theatre experiences of my life” which led to her commissioning and directing Ridley’s next two plays Leaves of Glass and Piranha Heights.

In 2010 police almost raided Theatre Delicatessen's production of the play (which was staged in a derelict office block) when a resident living next door believed the play's violent scenes were being carried out for real. Actors waiting offstage along with the company's producer intervened before the police would have stopped the performance.

In 2012 the play was arguably critically reassessed when revived by The Greenhouse Theatre Company, with the production receiving extremely positive reviews and even marketed as “Ridley’s Masterpiece”: a statement which was repeated by critic Aleks Sierz and ‘A Younger Theatre’ reviewer Jack Orr. The play also drew attention for its relevance in the aftermath of the 2011 England Riots with the production’s online trailer using dialogue from the play over footage from the riots.

For the 2012 production Ridley wrote four individual new monologues for the characters Elliot, Naz, Lola and Darren which were filmed and put on The Greenhouse Theatre Company’s YouTube channel to promote the play transferring to the West End.

Plays that critics believe have been influenced by or bear homage to Mercury Fur include:

• (2006) Motortown by Simon Stephens
• (2014) Hotel by Polly Stenham
• (2014) The Wolf from the Door by Rory Mullarkey

Productions

Mercury Fur has been performed worldwide in countries such as Australia, France, Italy, Malta, Turkey, the Czech Republic, the United States and Japan.

Country	Year	Location	People	Details
Italy	2006	Belli Theatre, Rome	Trilly Productions; Directed by Carlo Emilio Lerici	Opened in April 2006, on stage again in May 2007
USA (CA)	2007	Rude Guerilla, Santa Ana	Rude Guerrilla Theatre Company; Directed by Dave Barton	Opened in March 2007
USA (IL)	2007	The Broken Compass, Chicago	Directed by Greg Beam	Production played in April and May 2007
Australia	2007	Melbourne/Sydney	Little Death Productions; Directed by Ben Packer	Opened on 30 August 2007. It played first at Theatreworks in Melbourne, before transferring to the SBW Stables Theatre in Sydney as part of Griffin Theatre Company's 2007 Stablemates season.
Turkey	2008	Istanbul	DOT; Directed by Murat Daltaban	Opened on 18 October 2007
Malta	2008	Unifaun Theatre, Malta	Directed by Chris Gatt; Irene Christ playing The Duchess	Opened February 2008
USA (CA)	2009	Imagined Life Theatre, Los Angeles	Need Theatre; Directed by Dado	Opened May 2009
England	2010	Theatre Delicatessen, London	Directed by Frances Loy; Cast included Matt Granados, Chris Urch, Isaac Jones, Debra Baker, Tom Vickers, Ben Wigzell and Mikey Barj.	Opened in February 2010, The first major London revival, It was a critical and commercial success with the production selling out.
USA (NY)	2010	The Tank, New York City	Directed by Glynis Rigsby	Opened in March 2010
USA (CO)	2012	Theatre'dArt, Colorado Springs	Directed by Irene Hessner	Opened in February 2012
England	2012	The Old Red Lion Theatre, London	Directed by Ned Bennet; Cast included Olly Alexander, Frank C Keogh, Ben Dilloway, Henry Lewis, James Fynan, Ciarán Owens and Ronak Raj.	27 March - 14 April, The second major London revival. Winner of 'Best Set Design' for James Turner and nominated for 'Best Production' at the 2013 Off-West End Awards.
USA (NY)	2012	Atlantic Stage 2 Theater, New York City	Blue Ass Monkey Theater Company	Produced for a limited run in December 2012
Canada	2014	Unit 102 Theatre, Toronto	Seven Siblings Theatre Company. Canadian Premiere	Produced in August 2014
USA (NY)	2014	Under St. Marks Theater, New York City	Savage Detectives Theatre Company and Just a Gentleman Productions. Directed by Guillermo Logar; Cast includes Peter John Wallace, John Anthony Gorman, Rafael Albarran, Franco Pedicini, Enrique Huili, Nic Westwood, Valentina Corbella and Joseph Huffman. Stage Manager: Charles Furst.	Opens November 13, 2014
Japan	2015	Theatre Tram in Tokyo, Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Hyogo and Canal City theater in Fukuoka	Directed by Shirai Akira. Starring Issei Takahashi as Elliot and Seto Koji as Darren.	Produced as Japan Tour in February–March, 2015
USA (Philadelphia)	2015	BrainSpunk Theater, Philadelphia	Philadelphia Premiere, Directed by Josh Hitchens. Starring Joshua McLucas as Elliot and Samuel Fineman as Darren.	Produced July - August 2015
USA (NY)	2015	The New Group, New York City	Off-Broadway Premiere, Directed by Scott Elliott.	Opens August 5, 2015

Further reading

• Harpin, Anna (2011). Intolerable Acts in Performance Research, vol. 1, no. 16. Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd. ISBN 978-0-415-674423. pp. 102-111.
• Rebellato, Dan (2011). The Methuen Drama Guide to Contemporary British Playwrights. Methuen Drama. ISBN 9781408122785. pp. 438-40.

External links

• Audio interview for Theatre VOICE of Philip Ridley defending Mercury Fur
• Audio interview for Theatre VOICE of Ned Bennet on directing the 2012 revival of Mercury Fur
• Audio recording of post show Q&A with Philip Ridley after Middle Child's 2015 production of Mercury Fur in Hull