BOOKING DETAILS

A “Pay what you can” event.

This Event Supports:
MUTUAL AID INDIA
{Providing help to Indian charities battling against COVID-19}

Every Tuesday, 7pm - 9pm {UK}. Live on Zoom.

***CONTENT WARNING: Mercury Fur is a notoriously controversial and provocative play. It contains adult concepts and themes: depictions of violence, references to suicide and sexual violence, racial slurs, and drug use.***

MERCURY FUR

Join us for a brand new series of weekly ‘pay-what-you-can’ workshops about one of the most talked about, controversial, and game-changing plays of the 21st Century: MERCURY FUR by Philip Ridley.

When Mercury Fur premiered in 2005, starring Ben Whishaw, and directed by John Tiffany, it was an immediate 'cause celebre'. Ridley's long-term publishers, Faber & Faber, refused to publish the text, critics lambasted Ridley for his use of violence and provocative language, with the Daily Telegraph declaring, 'All involved are demeaned by the play.'

However, by the time of Ned Bennet's production of the play, which hit the West End in 2012, there had been a total sea-change. The response was four stars across the board. Critics called it 'utterly gripping,' 'addictive', and 'veined with heartbreaking tenderness'. It was if as, at last, they had all understood what Ridley had been saying from the beginning: Mercury Fur is not about violence...it's about love.

Mercury Fur is now Ridley's most performed play, with productions around the world, and is regarded as a seminal, modern classic.

The MERCURY FUR series will be hosted by actor Joseph Potter, who, in his Guildhall graduation show, played Darren in John Haidar's productions of Mercury Fur. Jospeh went on to be cast in Ridley's play THE BEAST OF BLUE YONDER,. He subsequently performed STAR in Ridley's breathtaking monologue sequence, THE BEAST WILL RISE (you can still watch these for free at www.WeAreTramp.com), and, mostly recently, won rave reviews for his performance as Sasha in Ridley's rmasterpiece THE POLTERGEIST (CRITICS CHOICE in the New York Times, and winner the OFFIE's OnComm Award for Best Live Streamed Play).

The Mercury Fur series will start off by reading the text in sections, then analysing this as a group. Everyone who wishes, will get the opportunity to read, discuss, rehearse and play! There will be images from Ridley's own personal collection of photographs and artworks that he created to help develope Mercury Fur, and, as the series goes on, we will have contributions from star guests who will accompany us on our journey!

So join us for...

#001 “MERCURY FUR” THE TEXT - PART 1

'HAVE YOU EATEN A BUTTERFLY?' The opening 15 pages of Mercury Fur establish all the themes and ideas that will permeate the play: family, violence, memory, fantasy, ritual...and love. We will explore how Ridley's unique and startling use of imagery reveals the psychological truth of both the world he has created and the characters who inhabit it. And we will discuss how Ridley's references to other works (from the story of the Minotaur to The Sound of Music) help unlock the meaning of this most challenging, increasingly relevant and exhilarating works of 21st Century theatre.

Listen to Joe’s open “Q&A” PODCAST with Run At It SHOUTING 17/03/2021