Theatre This article is more than 8 years oldReviewRadiant Vermin review – Philip Ridley’s nightmare tale of a dream home
This article is more than 8 years oldSoho theatre, London
A couple must murder their way to a perfect property in this morality play about a materialistic world where enough is never enough
There is no doubt as to the hot theatrical topic of the moment: the housing crisis. Like Mike Bartlett’s Game, Philip Ridley’s new play is about the high price young couples will pay to get on the property ladder. While Bartlett’s piece depends on repetitive visceral shocks, Ridley’s is a darkly funny morality play that implicates the audience without hitting it over the head.
The format is almost that of a sketch show, as an engaging young couple, Jill and Ollie, recall how they managed to get their dream home. Their story begins when they find they have been singled out by what looks like a government-sponsored housing scheme. They meet a strangely omniscient woman named Miss Dee, who offers them a perfect property; the only catch is that it lacks such basics as water and electricity. But when Ollie accidentally kills a local vagrant, the house miraculously acquires a perfectly equipped kitchen. Gradually, the couple realise that their room-by-room creation of a domestic palace depends upon their willingness to murder homeless people.
In outline, it sounds like one of those Ionesco plays of the 1950s in which an absurd premise is pursued with remorseless logic. But Ridley’s play is far subtler than that insofar as it shows how decent people are driven by desperation to stifle their consciences. The pivot of the play is a superb speech where Jill, brought up as a strict Christian, expresses her love-thy-neighbour beliefs. Gradually, however, she starts to parrot all the popular prejudices against the homeless until she has persuaded herself a new kitchen is worth a human life.
My only cavil lies in Ridley’s assumption that babies are ultimately to blame for our fetishistic worship of dream homes; he’s on surer grounds when he suggests we live in a madly materialistic world where enough is never enough.
The play uses the simplest theatrical means to explore the consequences of a Faustian bargain. David Mercatali’s exuberant production is played on a pristine-white stage allowing maximum scope for the actors. Gemma Whelan and Sean Michael Verey move through the quickfire scenes without missing a beat and without ever forfeiting our sympathy for a couple who retain a glimmer of conscience even at their most murderous. They also pull off with extraordinary elan the difficult feat of evoking the multiple characters who attend their son’s birthday party. Amanda Daniels also lends Miss Dee, a power-dressed Mephistopheles, a stylish authority, and confirms Ridley’s point that we live in a world that prioritises property over human life.
Until 12 April. Box office: 020-7478 0100. Venue: Soho theatre, London.
Explore more on these topicsShareReuse this contentncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEoKyaqpSerq96wqikaKuklrSme5FpaG5nnZa%2FcH2RaKmanJmWu7V51Z6ppqGeYr%2BmwsiermaomJ65qryMq6CdpJWuerS7x6hkraCVlsGzsYylpqecn6M%3D