Mercury Fur
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Cititour.com Review
Whatever happened to the Utopian future? These days, especially in books and films like “The Hunger Games,” “Divergent,” and “The Maze Runner,” dystopia is all the rage – and it’s enough to make you want to stock up on arsenic just in case you live that long. But few works I’ve seen honestly achieve the pitch-darkness of Philip Ridley’s drama “Mercury Fur,” which is being given a remarkable semi-immersive production by The New Group, directed by the formidable Scott Elliott and designed by the brilliant Derek McLane. And since the play (which has been revised since its 2005 London premiere to be set in New York) seems to take place in a fairly near-future, it’s even more chilling and more distressing than most other pieces in this genre.
Ridley’s story begins with a bickering pair of brothers, a la “Orphans”: the older, obviously smart Elliot (Zane Pais), who we soon learn makes a living by selling butterflies, which have become the new hallucinogens, and Darren (the excellent Jack DiFalco), who is high-strung, not-too-bright, yet worships his sibling. They have broken into an abandoned apartment and have to quickly tidy it up for a “party.”
It’s not exactly a celebration they’re getting ready for. In fact, Ridley teases out the details before we learn that it’s an event engineered by the commanding Spinx (Sea McHale) in which one so-called “party guest”( Peter Mark Kendall) will have his way with the “party piece,” who turns out to be very young Asian boy (Bradley Fong). One suspects the guest’s intention will be sexual, but once he arrives, it turns out the guest has another dream he wants fulfilled (not one, that honestly, seems to make much sense) – and that the currency he’s willing to pay isn’t money but something far more valuable.
Also on hand are Elliot’s girlfriend Lola (the superb Paul Iacono), a transvestite make-up artist, Spinx’s companion “The Duchess” (the very fine Emily Cass McDonnell), both of whom have familial connections to the other characters, and Naz (the wonderful Tony Revolori, who starred in Wes Anderson’s much cheerier “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), a neighbor in the building who is so starved for companionship that he insists on getting involved with this motley crew, seemingly oblivious to the danger it may entail.
As well-structured and well-acted as the work is (but a bit grueling to sit through at two hours without an intermission), it’s hard to say what Ridley’s point was in writing it. It hardly appears to be a cautionary tale or even an unique commentary on humanity. Perhaps, though, in the era of Donald Trump as possible president or endless delays in commuter transit, its main purpose is to make us appreciate the present. Or stock up on those drugs!
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.thenewgroup.org/mercury-fur.html
Open/Close Dates
Opening 8/5/2015
Closing 9/27/2015
Theatre Info
Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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