Mercury Fur

Challenging new play by the enfant terrible of dark, disturbing drama Elliot is panicking. The party that he and his brother Darren have been planning has been brought forward - to tonight. In a lawless, ravaged city, where memories of the past have been brutally erased, the boys and their team survive by realising their clients' darkest fantasies. But just how far are they prepared to go in trading humanity for information? As the light fades and events spiral out of control it becomes clear that on the success of the evening hangs not just their security, but their existence. The world is at its worst...;let the party begin. Mercury Fur is a challenging new work containing some explicit scenes that may cause offence.Published to tie-in with the play's premier at the Drum Theatre, Plymouth and The Chololate Factory, London in February 2005, produced by Paines Plough. "Philip Ridley is a singular writer, a prolific polymath, probably a genius, and the creator of some of the most peculiar, grotesque and compelling British plays (and films) of the last several years" Time Out

Philip Ridley was born in the East End of London and studied Fine Art at St Martin's School of Art. As a writer his credits include nine children's novels which have brought him a string of awards. His stage plays are The Pitchfork Disney (1991), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (1992), which won t he Meyer-Whitworth Prize, a Time Out Award, and both the Critics' Circle and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards for Most Promising Playwright, Ghost from a Perfect Place (1994), Vincent River (2000), Krindlekrax (premiered by the Birmingham Rep in June 2002) and three plays for young people: Fairytaleheart, Sparkleshark and Brokenville, which received a Fringe First nomination at the Edinburgh Festival. He has enjoyed considerable success as both a writer and director of films: the cult classic The Reflecting Skin (1990) won eleven international awards. His work has been translated into seventeen languages.