Philip Ridley has responded to the current lockdown situation, with a series of online monologues in association with Tramp and the cast of his play The Beast of Blue Yonder which was due to premiere at Southwark Playhouse this month.
The first monologue, Gator stars Rachel Bright (who plays Poppy Meadow in the BBC soap opera EastEnders). It was launched online Thursday, 2nd April at 7.30pm. Further monologues will follow at the same time each week.
Jack Silver, Artistic Director of Tramp told us;
“When we postponed Beast it was devastating. Not just because of all the hard work the cast and creative team had already put in but because, like so many people in the industry, most of our cast have day jobs in things like the service industry, gyms, and teaching acting. Most of them didn’t just lose an acting job last week, they lost their day jobs too.”
Silver spoke with Ridley to see if they come up with some ideas to help the cast and creatives financially. They needed something to “keep their creative juices flowing.” So they came up with The Beast Will Rise.
The plan was that the cast of the play would perform the monologues each week, to be available to watch for free online. The audience are invited to make a donation.
“We promised people a ‘Philip Ridley’ world premiere this Thursday at 7.30pm, and we’re going to give them one” says Silver. “It’s not the one we’d originally planned, but in a way that makes it even more exciting.”
This is a first time for Philip Ridley, to have a world premiere online with Gator, but we are in unprecedented times. He actually wrote it in the past few weeks in direct response to what’s happening in the world right now.
Director Wiebke Green, is directing all the monologues over Skype, before the actors record them.
Silver tells us he was also speaking to the team behind Anything is Possible, the show which was due to open the day before their show was in Southwark’s studio space. They were also suffering from the same fate of having their show cancelled.
They decided to share any donations between the actors and key creatives of both shows. “It’s important that we show solidarity with other shows, after all we are all in this together” says Silver.
As well as Rachel Bright, the cast of The Beast of Blue Yonder includes Mirren Mack (Sex Education, The Nest), Jade Ewen (Aladdin, In the Heights), Steve Furst (Little Britain, Matilda, Made in Dagenham), Charlie Quirke (Birds of a Feather), Unique Spencer (Top Boy), Tyler Conti (Safe), Lucy Gape (Hollyoaks), Kyle Rowe, Jospeh Drake, Joseph Potter, Nat Johnson, Mike Evans, and Grace Hogg-Robinson.
Gator was launched on Tramp’s Twitter and Instagram channels this Thursday as part of The Beast Will Rise. Further online world premieres from Ridley will follow each week.
Directed by Wiebke Green, the collection of monologues, will run weekly from Thursday, 2nd April Time: 7.30pm online.
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