Ollie (Sean Michael Verey) is suspicious of a deal the mysterious Miss Dee (Debra Baker) offers him and his wife, Jill (Scarlett Alice Johnson), in Philip Ridley’s RADIANT VERMIN (photo by Carol Rosegg)
BRITS OFF BROADWAY: RADIANT VERMIN
59E59 Theaters
59 East 59th St. between Park & Madison Aves.
Tuesday – Sunday through July 3, $35
212-279-4200
www.59e59.org
How far would you go to achieve your suburban dreams? British playwright Philip Ridley reveals just how much one young couple is ready to risk in the unapologetically delicious wicked black comedy Radiant Vermin. At first, Jillian and Oliver Swift (Scarlett Alice Johnson and Sean Michael Verey) are suspicious of the official government letter they receive from Miss Dee (Debra Baker) offering them a free house in a questionable neighborhood. Ollie thinks it’s some kind of reality television show gag. “Let’s make fun of the underclass desperate to get on the property ladder,” he says. But Jill quickly changes her mind after verifying that the offer is indeed real. “Ollie! If you do not agree to see this house then I will get very upset,” she declares to her husband. “And if I get very upset, our unborn baby will get very upset. And you remember what that psychiatrist on the telly said about pregnancy shaping the rest of a child’s life. Do you want our child to grow into someone who machine guns his classmates?” When they meet Miss Dee at the house, they overlook her strange, intimate knowledge of their life and sign a contract, taking ownership of the home; the only catch is that the house needs a lot of work, which they’ll need to take care of themselves. Everything else, including all taxes and utilities, have been paid. “You’re a marriage made in heaven,” Miss Dee proclaims, one of many references to heaven, hell, angels, reincarnation, and God. But when Jill and Ollie find out just what they have to do in order to renovate their new house, they are initially shocked but quickly go to the extreme lengths required to provide a happy home for them and their child. “What would you prefer, Jill? Eh?” Ollie asks. “A new kitchen? Or a dead body in the old one?”
Jill (Scarlett Alice Johnson) and Ollie (Sean Michael Verey) envision a much rosier future in wickedly funny Philip Ridley play (photo by Carol Rosegg)
Staging is always unusual in Ridley’s plays, and Radiant Vermin is no different. In the New Group’s 2015 revival of Mercury Fur at the Signature, the Romulus Linney Courtyard Theatre was turned into a postapocalyptic urban battleground. In the fierce 2012 love story Tender Napalm at 59E59, the action took place in a narrow space between the two rows of audience members on either side. And the back-to-back one-person shows Tonight with Donny Stixx and Dark Vanilla Jungle at HERE this past winter featured a cagelike area that entrapped the main characters. William Reynolds’s set for Radiant Vermin is a spare, almost blindingly white makeshift floor and backdrop, a little slice of heaven, with no props; three fluorescent lights hang from above, illuminating the sharp colors of the costumes, Jill in yellow, Ollie in blue, and Miss Dee, of course, in red. David Mercatali, who has directed six Ridley world premieres, keeps it as basic as possible as Jill and Ollie tell their crazy story directly to the audience. Johnson (EastEnders, Nightshift) and Verey (Tonight with Donny Stixx, Moonfleece), who starred together in Chris Reddy’s BBC series Pramface, playing teenagers who are going to have a baby, share a delightful familiarity with each other that is infectious, bringing the fabulous absurdities of Jill and Ollie’s situation down to earth, making it all natural and believable. And Baker (Mercury Fur, Vincent River) is a steadying force as the cool and calm Miss Dee, who is fully prepared for any and all eventualities. Ridley, who is also a children’s book writer, filmmaker, poet, and visual artist, was inspired to write the play after moving from his longtime home in Bethnal Green, which led to his questioning rampant consumerism and the housing crisis. As Jill and Ollie sing in the play, “Make it bigger / make it brighter / make it faster / make it louder / make it stand out in the crowdier / for the world to adore / and when you’ve done all that — / oh, hell, I’ll still want more. / Hell, I still want more.” Part of the annual Brits Off Broadway festival at 59E59, which also includes Alan Ayckbourn’s Confusions and Hero’s Welcome, Radiant Vermin is another thrilling triumph from one of England’s most talented voices.