This is the End
Wednesday 29th August
Patrons arriving at Theatreworks this week might find themselves disoriented. After walking through an unusual entrance, they'll find themselves immersed in the squalor of a housing estate flat filled with junk food wrappers, computer equipment and the general debris of advanced consumer capitalism. Cramped in this claustrophobic space, they will join brothers Eliot and Darren in a race against the fading daylight, as the pair prepare to host a party at which they will fulfill their wealthy client's dark sexual fantasies.
Written by British theatre's enfant terrible Phillip Ridley, Mercury Fur is the play that scandalised London's theatrical old guard. It's an apocalyptic nightmare set in the not-so-distant future; described by some British critics called "a descent into hell", and a projection of the playwright's "sick fantasies". Daily newspaper The Telegraph called it "poisonous", while Ridley's own publisher of ten years, Faber and Faber, refused to touch it.
But this barrage of disgust was equaled by extravagant acclaim. The Sunday Times called Mercury Fur "the definitive 9/11 play," while The Independent hailed it as "the new Clockwork Orange".
For director Ben Packer, reading the play was addictive.
"It lodged in my mind so strongly that I felt that this was a play that I really needed to do… it's a play that is so strong in its themes and its imagery, that you kind of live with it for days after you've seen it," he tells MCV.
One possible reason for the impact Mercury Fur has upon people, Packer theorises, is that it, "is set in the very, very near future… This is a world that is upon us… This is a future that we all might face."
Unusually for a contemporary play, it occurs entirely inside one room, in real time.
"The world outside has completely descended into chaos," Ben explains. "There's rioting, there's animals escaped from zoos, there's looting through the supermarkets, there's gangs of kids roaming the streets."
This decaying world is evoked by the vivid descriptions voiced by a talented troupe of actors, and by award-winning sound designer Kelly Ryall's powerful musical score; but it's a world we barely even glimpse.
"We don't see the violence, we don't see this actually happening, we create it in our minds," Packer explains.
The characters we do see, inside the squalid flat in which the play is set, are a motley crew: a blind, middle-aged woman;, a transsexual, Lola; and, eventually, a child dressed as Elvis.
"These characters will go to any lengths in order to protect those that they love. And that is the overwhelming impression, after the play finishes; that they will go to very dark places in order to keep each other safe. So, in that sense, that is what remains when everything else falls away… in an apocalyptic world, those [bonds] just become stronger. There are scenes of incredible tenderness in amongst [the] descriptions of extreme violence," the director explains.
Packer is particularly intrigued by the play's matter-of-fact presentation of same-sex relationships, and non-normative gender.
"What I'm interested in is that it doesn't seem to judge any of these characters. For example, one of these love stories is the story of Elliot and Lola… [who have] this strong, intense, beautiful relationship… and what I found really interesting is that the play and none of the characters on stage every make any judgement about that relationship."
"[Lola] is this enormously strong and positive figure in the play and it's never discussed at all why she is trans, or how that affected her, or the issues that she faced growing up. It's just matter-of-factly presented," Packer adds.
So, in a world where social order has crumbled and there's lawlessness on the streets, hetero-normality and the societal pressures to conform have broken down?
"In amongst all the kind of negatives of a kind of chaotic world, that's something that seems to be a positive," he agrees.
So, is there hope or redemption for these youth of the future? Or does it all end in despair?
"Well, I don't want to give away the ending, but certainly, at the end of Mercury Fur, there's an incredibly powerful scene," Packer teasingly concludes.
Mercury Fur runs from August 30 - September 16 at Theatreworks, 14 Acland Street, St Kilda. Bookings on 9534 3388 or http://www.theatreworks.org.au/.
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Photo: Xavier Samuel as Darren and Luke Mullins as Elliot (photograph by Dan Stainsby)
