Philip Ridley's Ghost from a Perfect Place, Arcola Theatre

“When I raised my voice – the whole of East London would collectively shit itself…”

Megan Prosser explores Bethnal Green Gangs and “In-Yer-Face Theatre”, 20 years on…

By Megan Prosser

I grew up with Philip Ridley. His children’s book, "Kasper In The Glitter", often overlooked due to the stellar popularity of "Krindlekrax", was a firm favourite which I must have read 100 times over. And it was my fondness for this tome that found me at the Arcola on a peaceful Monday night.

My first impression of the production’s single set – a kitchen in a tower block – tantalizingly close in the intimate thrust setting, was that it resembled Osbourne’s “Look Back in Anger”, but with a nuclear twist. But in fact – the soot and the peeling paint of this domestic dystopia were not down to anything so dramatic as a holocaust, but rather, simple fire damage. So, in this play, we rest more or less in the real world, albeit a heightened one, right down to the bottle of Croft Sherry lurking under the sink, and the Rich Tea biscuits.

To be specific, we’re in the East End, Philip Ridley’s birthplace. It didn’t take long to realise this, and it took even less time to realise that the evening would be chock-full of biblical allusions – “fire”, “flood”, “flies” – all of the plagues present and correct on this “Judgement Day”. This is even before mentioning the Virgin Birth by teenage mother “Donna”, the newborn baby with “hair gold like the sun”, or the comet proclaiming the birth of a child. Are we getting the picture?

To complete this bonafide Bethnal Green Nativity – the action of the play centres around the return of a Prodigal son, proclaiming, in the style of a sermon – “I will go back home one more time. I will walk those streets. I will wear those clothes. I will have a white lily in my lapel. For one more day before there are no more days… I will be Travis Flood”.

And indeed, here he is, our East End Gangster “Travis Flood” (Michael Feast) – his patent shoes polished to a high-shine. Your quintessential 1960’s Spiv, running protection rackets and breaking arms and faces while being worshipped by the local “salt of the earth”. He is the eponymous “Ghost from a Perfect Place”, hailing as he does from a rose-tinted time of peace, respect, and gangsters – “The Heydays”. No surprise here then, that Philip Ridley was also the screenwriter for the 1990’s film “The Krays” (starring Spandau Ballet, or some of them).

Particular compliments must go to the 5-strong cast, not only the two core performances by the consummate Sheila Reid and Michael Feast, but to the three ultra-violent Cher Lloyd-esque gang members, played by Florence Hall, Scarlett Brookes and Rachel Redford, in their gold miniskirts. An awesome amount of threat and violence emanating from these three young actors, and Hall especially, as tart-with-a-heart teenage prostitute “Baby Rio”, is certainly one to watch. As Travis Flood says to her character, she’s “special” – elegant, powerful and moving in equal measure. Vocally, I might have liked to see even more violence and venom from these trio of witches, to match their physical dynamism, but I daresay this is something that will grow throughout the run.

The play (first performed in 1994) reminded me immensely of both the aforementioned “Kasper In The Glitter” (also published by Ridley in 1994) and, irrepressibly, of Sarah Kane’s “Blasted”, first performed in 1995. As a piece of dark, mid-90’s theatre, “Ghost from a Perfect Place” is represented as one of Ridley’s most controversial works and was described by Michael Billington at the time as “pornographic”. In fact, it transpires that it was considered a major part of the “In-Yer-Face” theatre movement.

However, the passage of time, combined with the violence and pornography that have become almost commonplace over the last two decades (take Dennis Kelly’s “Utopia” as a recent example), have dulled the edge of the blade. And so, rather than shocking us with the punch of total brutality that something like “Blasted” can still deliver to any audience’s sternum, my lingering impression and the most direct comparison I am able to make to this play, would be to another East-End family drama, “The Homecoming” by Pinter, albeit with less linguistic wit. Unsetlling, sexy, with a big dose of something very “wrong” lurking just under the surface, and laugh-out-loud funny to boot.

PS in short: a very nicely delivered production of a fair play, buoyed by an exceptional cast. And, crucially, one NEVER regrets a trip to the Arcola.

Ghost from a Perfect Place,

Philip Ridley

Arcola Theatre

Thursday 11th September 2014 - Saturday 11th October 2014

Photo: Ben Broomfield

Click for tickets and further information.

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