Fun and endlessly fascinating, this play deliberately resists easy interpretation.
A descendant of the absurdist comedies of Beckett, Philip Ridley’s Pitchfork Disney takes a simple scenario and posits it as a symbol of the human condition.
Presley and Haley, brother and sister, live alone. Perhaps they’ve been abandoned by their parents? They’re fearful of the outside world and their diet consists exclusively of chocolate. But Presley and Haley are not children; they’re adults, reduced to a childlike state by the absence of an authoritative world view. In a pathetic attempt to establish some sort of meaningful vision of Life, they tell each other their nightmares, retell outlandish stories, and recall a past when Mum and Dad provided a secure centre to their existence. Ridley’s genius is the conscious use of cliché and allusions to consumer pop culture to evoke the malaise of modern meaninglessness.
Into this closed world comes Cosmo Disney, a two bit entertainer who makes a living by supplying his audience with a “daily dose of disgust.” In a world devoid of higher purpose, at least fear and repulsion are constant.
Director Victor Kalka does wonderful work with this classic of modern theatre, creating a space in which imminent threat and comic exuberance play chicken.
The cast is exceptionally strong. Jane Angharad as Haley is magnificently vulnerable, her childlike physicality and her delivery of Ridley’s evocative monologues a delight. James Smithers as Presley, onstage through virtually the entire production, gives a virtuoso performance; doubt, bravado, terror, reluctance, desire, wonder, all brilliantly brought to life. Harry Winsome’s Cosmo is a beautifully disturbing portrait of self-serving confidence, operating both as a foil to the two adult children he impinges upon, and granting insight into the unexpected ways in which moral emptiness manifests itself. James Hartley provides a terrific cameo – of which the spoiler rule reduces me to silence – except to say it’s both powerful and hilarious.
Paul Gilchrist
Pitchfork Disney by Philip Ridley
presented by Virginia Plain
at Meraki Arts Bar until 5 Aug
Image by Clare Hawley
Theatre Red 
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