Description: "100 self-contained original monologues for actors of all ages and genders, written by one of Britain's most celebrated dramatists, Philip Ridley"--
Brief description: Philip Ridley was born and grew up in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin's School of Art. He has written many highly regarded and hugely influential stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (winner of a Time Out Award, the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize), Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River (nominated for the London Festival Fringe Best Play Award), the highly controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights (nominated for the WhatsOnStage Mobius Award for Best Off West End Production), Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award), Shivered (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award), Radiant Vermin (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), Tonight With Donny Stixx, Karagula (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), The Beast of Blue Yonder, The Poltergeist (winner of the OffWestEnd OnComm Award for Best Live Streamed Play) and Tarantula; plus several plays for young people (collectively known as The Storyteller Sequence): Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children's Books), the seminal Sparkleshark (the first of the Connections Festival plays - all written for young people - to be staged professionally by the National Theatre), and Brokenville; also, Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award).
Review Quotes:
"The Vespers is utterly amazing. Ridley's writing is marvelously precise and constantly surprising in its twists and turns. At every point he manages to evoke ideas and feelings that are both thrilling and true. It's a supreme achievement by the most innovative and exciting contemporary British writer, whose words dazzle, make you think of the unthinkable, and tune you into wild and wonderful emotions that seem to echo from beyond the text. Read and be transported." --Aleks Sierz
"Ridley is delving into a sulphurous imagination for some of the most potent and indelible images you're likely to find this side of sleep" --Scotland on Sunday "Philip Ridley doesn't write plays so much as dark hallucinations in which the world is skewed through his penetrating vision, so we look at it through new eyes" --Guardian