By Philip Ridley, Directed by Max Harrison
Max Harrison’s revival of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney at the new King’s Head Theatre (four floors underground) is a gripping plunge into the surreal and the unsettling. Harrison’s direction is razor-sharp, creating an atmosphere that is both suffocatingly intimate and explosively theatrical. From the first moment, the audience is pulled into a waking nightmare that lingers long after the final blackout.
First staged in 1991, Ridley’s play is a cornerstone of in-yer-face theatre—a raw and fearless exploration of fear, desire, and trauma. The action unfolds in a claustrophobic East London bedsit, where twins Presley (Ned Costello) and Haley (Elizabeth Connick) live in fearful isolation. Childlike and suffering from agoraphobia, they survive on a strange diet of chocolate, tablets, and liquid medicine with a sedative effect. They spend their days telling stories—half comforting, half grotesque—as a way of keeping their fears at bay and making sense of a world they no longer dare to face.
Their fragile sanctuary is shattered by the arrival of the flamboyant showman Cosmo (William Robinson) and his masked, mute accomplice Pitchfork (Matt Yulish). What begins as grotesque storytelling spirals into menace, as Cosmo’s bizarre tales seep into Presley’s imagination, and the presence of Pitchfork pushes the siblings’ already brittle existence towards collapse. The boundaries between dream, nightmare, and reality dissolve before our eyes.
The themes at the heart of the play are as resonant today as when Ridley first wrote them:
- Isolation and fear of the outside world, embodied in Presley and Haley’s agoraphobia.
- Childhood trauma and repression, simmering beneath their sibling bond.
- Fantasy versus reality, as their stories blur with the intrusions of Cosmo and Pitchfork.
- Desire and vulnerability, revealed through Presley’s uneasy fascination with Cosmo.
- The grotesque as both terrifying and magnetic, personified in the figure of Pitchfork.
The set design by Kit Hinchliffe traps the characters in a world that feels at once domestic and dreamlike, a room that breathes with menace. The lighting by Ben Jacobs heightens the hallucinatory quality of the piece, plunging the stage into sharp contrasts of shadow and revelation.
The cast deliver astonishing performances:
- Ned Costello captures Presley’s fragile innocence and simmering inner turmoil.
- Elizabeth Connick’s Haley is raw and volatile, her moments of vulnerability deeply affecting.
- William Robinson’s Cosmo is magnetic—charming, grotesque, and dangerous in equal measure.
- Matt Yulish as Pitchfork is a force of silent menace, a looming presence that embodies the play’s nightmarish core.
This revival makes clear why The Pitchfork Disney has endured as one of the most important British plays of the past three decades. It is an unflinching exploration of our darkest fears and desires, staged here with extraordinary precision and emotional intensity. Harrison and his team deliver a production that is as unsettling as it is unforgettable.
Max Harrison’s revival of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney at the King’s Head Theatre runs until 4 October.
