The Age EG preview story

Mercury Fur

Let the party begin

August 31, 2007

Genius or grotesque? A new play has polarised critics, by Fiona Scott-Norman.

WHENEVER a writer imagines the future, their vision leans usually to one of two ways. Either all problems have been solved through technology, bigotry and sexism have vanished, and everyone gets about in skin-tight, non gender-specific unitards, or the world's great cities lie in smouldering ruins and small pockets of desperate survivors do whatever they can to stay alive.

Renowned British playwright Philip Ridley's recent work, Mercury Fur, falls into the latter category. His imagined Britain, set only a few years hence, is so bleak and violent that his then publisher, Faber & Faber, refused to publish it, some of his friends almost abandoned him, and one critic announced he was "turned on by his own sick fantasies".

Not everyone, however, was put off by Ridley's dystopia, where the world in the future is ruined, catastrophic and corrupt. Director and producer Ben Packer, whose production of Mercury Fur opened this week at Theatreworks, read the reviews in the London papers, and was immediately drawn to the story.

"It seemed to really divide the critics, which made me prick up my ears. It sounded very current, very young, very hot. I got my hands on the script and couldn't get some of the images out of mind; the themes burnt themselves into my brain," says Packer, who heads up little death productions.

Described by the Independent On Sunday as "the new Clockwork Orange", the world of Mercury Fur is one where all social order has broken down. A group of desperate young men have found a niche as extreme party planners to the remaining ruling elite. For a price they will put on anything that's asked for - and when we catch up with them in a room in an abandoned housing estate, they're planning a snuff party where a child will be murdered. "The action in the play happens over one night. They break into a flat, they find a young boy, they set up the beer and peanuts," Packer says.

"They're under a lot of time pressure because the party's been brought forward. The party they're organising is a horrific thing but they're doing this to keep the gang together. There are moments of great tenderness. The play is about the extremes we might go to to protect the people we love."

This seems to be the core of Ridley's play, which has been performed all over the world. Mercury Fur is no superficial gorefest but a savage commentary on contemporary society with a thread of hope running through it. Although widely condemned for its descriptions of appalling violence and degradation, Ridley's defence was that his scenes were all based on factual accounts of atrocities happening right now.

"Philip took some of these stories from refugees in Rwanda and used them verbatim, just transferred them to London. Massacres in supermarkets, streets on fire, hospitals being raided. He's saying that this violence is happening now but all of sudden because it's in a Western city instead of Africa, it's unpalatable."

Most of the brutality takes place off stage, described by the characters rather than shown, which Packer considers augments, rather than diminishes, the impact. Unsurprisingly, working on such a dark, confronting play, special consideration had to be given to the mental health of the cast. Packer says he took the content of the play into account even when casting.

"I cast people who I felt were strong enough to deal with the material and walk away from it at the end of the night. Some actors read it and just didn't want to go there. We've had to go to some unpleasant places in rehearsal - talking about violence, death, suicide and sexual fantasies."

Packer has retained the London setting for Mercury Fur but the actors - Luke Mullins, Xavier Samuel, Russ Pirie, Gareth Ellis and Paul Ashcroft - keep their Australian accents in the production.

"There was no need to change accents. The themes in the play are absolutely identifiable: loss of history, caring for your family, living in a world of problems created by their forebears. I think the audience will easily see that it's only a small stretch from a city like London being bombed, to our railway stations here. It's absolutely a play written for now."

Mercury Fur is on at Theatreworks until September 16. Bookings: 9534 3388.

Photo: Luke Mullins as Elliot (photograph by Dan Stainsby)