THE STORY: Davey has seen something he can’t forget. Anita has been forced to flee her home. These two have never met. Tonight their paths cross, with devastating consequences. Thrilling, heartbreaking and darkly humorous by turns, VINCENT RIVER is an upfront look at self-deception’s power to destroy.
“Ridley’s play, with an appallingly sadistic killing at its heart, has a stark simplicity that belies the intricacy of its language and imagery…[The play] conveys powerfully the way in which fiercely held fictions within families, while they remain unchallenged, prop up the familial construct at the cost of dangerously defining and restricting the individuals within it and their relationships…Ridley scatters poetic fragments throughout, like a trail of bread-crumbs leading to the supposed safety of home.” —The Times (London).
“I rely on Philip Ridley to leave me shaken and shocked. His considerable imagination reaches places I prefer not to visit, unless escorted by a writer of his moral seriousness.” —Evening Standard (UK).
“What gives VINCENT RIVER its particular and considerable power is how it uses a classic, creaky structure to cast big, disturbing shadows that wind up following you home…The chances of the image of the dead Vincent River ever getting up and walking out of Davey’s head are very slim. That’s just as true for us as it is for him.” —The New York Times.
“Writer Philip Ridley is a master at dispensing information a bit at a time…the stakes and the tension remain high, keeping audience members locked in. The ending is especially well-written; it’s surprising but, upon reflection, exactly right.” —CurtainUp.
