"Mercury Fur is a poisonous piece,” wrote The Telegraph theatre critic, Charles Spencer, when the play opened in London in 2005. He described the production as “like a vicious kick in the guts” and complained that the playwright, Philip Ridley, was “actually turned on by his own sick fantasies.” Spencer was not alone in his disgust at the work: Ridley, writer of the brilliant The Pitchfork Disney, found that his own publisher, Faber & Faber, refused to print his new play.
Other critics, however, were equally passionate in their praise: The Sunday Times called Mercury Fur, “a play you need to see”; The Independent on Sunday, “grippingly visceral … the new Clockwork Orange.” Fellow playwright Mark Ravenhill thought it was the best play of the year: “You came out of it going, Wow, I've been in another universe.” With the critics fiercely divided, word of mouth from the play’s audiences brought packed houses to the theatre each night. The play is set in a city where chaos has overrun the streets. A group of young boys take on the roles of party-planners for those in power, catering for the twisted fantasies of the rich. At its heart though, Mercury Fur is about the families we create when all social order has disintegrated and about how the telling of stories can create communities in a shattered world. ‘little death productions’ has assembled a team of young Melbourne theatre artists, including director Ben Packer, designer Adam Gardnir, composer Kelly Ryall and lighting designer Danny Pettingill, to craft the dystopian world of Mercury Fur into an unforgettable experience.
Photo: Luke Mullins as Elliot (photograph by Dan Stainsby)
