Vincent River (play)

Vincent River
Written by	Philip Ridley
Characters	Anita (Female, aged 53) Davey (Male, aged 17)
Date premiered	6th September 2000
Place premiered	Hampstead Theatre, London
Original language	English
Subject	Homophobia
Setting	"A run-down flat in Dagenham, East London"

Vincent River is a one act stage play by Philip Ridley. It was Ridley's fourth stage play for adults and premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London on 6 September 2000.^[1] The production was the last major collaboration between Ridley and director Mathew Lloyd, who had previously directed the majority of Ridley's other theatrical works.^[2]

It is believed that the play draws heavily from Ridley's unpublished radio play October Scars the Skin which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 16 January 1989. The story like Vincent River involved a mother of a murdered homosexual who befriends his son's lover and also featured a character called Vincent.^[3]^[4]

Plot

The story plays out in realtime and is set in a rundown flat in Dagenham.

There a woman called Anita is moving in following the death of Vincent, her son who was killed in a homophobic attack which resulted in her discovering that he was a homosexual in the aftermath of his murder.

In the play we see her interact with Davey, a boy who claims to have been the first to find Vincent's corpse and who wants to know as much as he can about Vincent from Anita.

Notable Stage Productions

Premiere

6 September 2000 at The Bush Theatre, London. Directed by Matthew Lloyd.^[5]

Anita - Julie Legrand
Davey - William Mannering

2007 Revival^[6]^[7]^[8]

30 October 2007 at Trafalgar Studios, London. Directed by Rebecca McCuheon.

Anita - Lynda Bellingham
Davey - Mark Field

American Premiere^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]^[15]

10 June 2008 at 59E59 Theaters, New York. Directed by Steve Marmion.

Anita - Deborah Findlay
Davey - Mark Field

Australian Premiere^[16]

4 January 2009 at Tamarama Rock Surfers, Bondi Beach. Directed by Jonathan Wald.

Anita - Elaine Hudson
Davey - Beejan Land

Israeli Premiere.

7 August 2015 at Tahel Theatre.^[17]

Anita - Meyrav Gruber
Davey - Avi Mazliah

On Film

In 2006 Marianne Epin and Cyrille Thouvenin starred in the play on-stage, which was filmed and released as a television movie. It is available on region 2 DVD.

The play has been compared to the 2014 film, Lilting, starring Ben Whishaw, Cheng Pei Pei and Andrew Leung and written and directed by Hong Khaou. The story similar to the play is about a man who approaches the mother of his deceased gay lover to try and connect and understand their loss.

References

Theatrical Works of Philip Ridley

Adult Stage Plays	The Pitchfork Disney (1991) The Fastest Clock in the Universe (1992) Ghost from a Perfect Place (1994) Vincent River (2000) Mercury Fur (2005) Leaves of Glass (2007) Piranha Heights (2008) Tender Napalm (2011) Shivered (2012) Dark Vanilla Jungle (2013) Radiant Vermin (2015) Tonight with Donny Stixx (2015)

Plays for Young People (The Storyteller Sequence)	Sparkleshark (1997) Fairytaleheart (1998) Brokenville (2000) Moonfleece (2004) Karamazoo (2004)

Plays for the Whole Family	Feathers in the Snow (2012)

Plays for Children	Krindlekrax (2002) Daffodil Scissors (2004)

Liberetto	On Such A Day (2007) Tarantula in Petrol Blue (2009)

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Vincent River (play)

Plot

Notable Stage Productions

On Film

Further reading

References