Dark Vanilla Jungle and other monologues

Description

It was a very hot day - dazzling sunshine! - and Mum - she was wiping sweat from her neck. No, not wiping. Dabbing . . . Dab . . . Dab. Mum was a beauty. Not like me. And don't tell me I am because you'll be lying and I won't thank you for it. Not today. Not when this whole thing - us, here - is about me telling the truth. The latest from Philip Ridley is a beautiful, breathtaking new drama about one girl's craving for family and home, and the lengths she will go to achieve them. Dark Vanilla Jungle embarked on a national tour of Great Britain in spring 2014. This edition also features a selection of previously unpublished monologues by Philip Ridley alongside the play.

Philip Ridley was born in the East End of London, where he still lives and works. He is a contemporary artist, poet, novelist, film-maker and one of the country's most celebrated living playwrights. Ridley has been described as 'probably a genius' (Time Out), 'a visionary' (Rolling Stone), 'the master of modern myth' (Guardian) and 'the best British playwright of the last 20 years' (Aleks Sierz, author of In-Yer-Face Theatre). His plays include Ghost From A Perfect Place, Leaves of Glass, Mercury Fur, Moonfleece, Piranha Heights, The Pitchfork Disney, Tender Napalm, The Fastest Clock in the Universe, The Krays, Shivered and Vincent River.

We need writers such as Ridley to take us to these dark crevasses of experience . . . it all remains with you like a vivid hallucination * The Arts Desk * No one captures pain, violence and the misery of love gone wrong quite like Philip Ridley * Telegraph * Flawless script . . . his writing is second to none . . . it's breathtaking * Female Arts * Ridley, as ever a master of lyrical unpleasantness, who here creates a picture of innocence corrupted . . . This is lacerating excruciating theatre, which leaves the audience exhausted and speechless * Evening Standard * There is grit flecked with sparkle and punishing bleakness with a hint of magic . . . When it comes to oddly exquisite horror, no one does it better * Exeunt *