Radiant Vermin review – Faustian take on getting a foot on the property ladder
Johnny McKnight’s snappy revival makes us all complicit in Philip Ridley’s satire on capitalism and consumerism
January 2021
Lockdown culture
The Poltergeist review – you are invited to a new circle of hell
Joseph Potter summons enough characters to fill the stage in Philip Ridley’s dark comedy of manners about family dysfunction and wasted talent
April 2020
Lockdown culture
The Beast Will Rise review – intense solos for a world in isolation
Gators and Zarabooshka, the first instalments in a new 14-part series of monologues by Philip Ridley, feature anxious characters marooned in confusing times
February 2018
Angry review – six blasts of rage and fantasy from Philip Ridley
Georgie Henley and Tyrone Huntley star in a swaggering production that seldom deepens into anything meaningful
February 2017
Killer review – Philip Ridley drags us into the dark with a fearsome, funny trio
The Pitchfork Disney review – exhilarating chocoholic apocalypse
January 2017
Theatre blog
Plan your week’s theatre: top tickets
Escaped Alone returns, Gary Barlow opens his musical The Girls, Vault and Manipulate add to the festival fare and The White Devil walks again
November 2016
On my radar
On my radar: Gemma Whelan’s cultural highlights
The Game of Thrones actor on the disconcerting accuracy of Black Mirror and the striking pop of Christine and the Queens
June 2016
Theatre blog
Psst! The dismal truth about theatre's 'secret location' gimmick
Shows such as Philip Ridley’s Karagula aim to entice audiences with the promise of a mysterious venue. All too often, this has little relevance to the play itself
Karagula review – JFK rituals and snowglobe worshippers
Philip Ridley’s three-hours-plus tangle of dystopian fantasies doesn’t lack for imagination, but is undone by its own excesses
Plan your week's theatre: top tickets
Isabelle Huppert plays Phaedra and Mike Bartlett’s new play Wild opens, plus the rest of the week’s unmissable theatre
January 2016
The absurd comedy that is London's housing crisis
When we set out to make a show about the baroque horror of the capital’s property problem, it quickly became clear that the result would be tragicomic
September 2015
The long read
The selling of the Krays: how two mediocre criminals created their own legend
The long read: With three new Kray films and yet more books on the way, Duncan Campbell recalls that the twins were always better at fame than crime
August 2015
Tonight With Donny Stixx at Edinburgh festival review – social misfit conjures menace
Edinburgh fringe theatre 2015 review – a feast of shock, awe, robotic acting and bad French accents
July 2015
Theatre blog
Plan your week's theatre: top tickets
There’s a postage-stamp sized revival of Oliver! in Newbury, Tony Benn lives again in Nottingham, Ursula Martinez is self-promoting at the Southbank, and Howard Davies directs in Chichester
June 2015
Film blog
Existential cowboys: Slow West isn't the first European journey into US darkness
John Maclean’s new film starring Michael Fassbender follows a long line of artful forays into the pathologies of America, from Wim Wenders to Philip Ridley via honorary European Jim Jarmusch
Edinburgh fringe 2015 lineup: grab your chance to see theatre's future
Lyn Gardner
The programme for this year’s festival is out and among established talents such as Daniel Kitson and Philip Ridley will be the theatre-makers of tomorrow
Theatre blog
Edinburgh fringe festival 2015: what to see and where to go
New shows from Daniel Kitson, Circa and Mark Thomas, the return of Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree and a musical based on an Alan Warner novel are among this year’s fringe highlights
March 2015
Radiant Vermin review – Philip Ridley’s nightmare tale of a dream home
A couple must murder their way to a perfect property in this morality play about a materialistic world where enough is never enough, writes Michael Billington
