Philip Ridley

Philip Ridley (born 1964 in East London)^[2] is an English storyteller working in a wide range of artistic media.

In the visual arts he has been cited as a contemporary to the ‘Young British Artists’,^[3] and has exhibited his work internationally.^[4]

As a novelist he has created fiction for both children and adults, and has had particular success and recognition as a children's author.^[5]

In the world of cinema he is perhaps best known for his award winning screenplay for the 1990 film The Krays, a biopic about the Kray twins which was directed by Peter Medak.^[6] As a film-maker in his own right he is recognised for creating a loose trilogy of horror films; The Reflecting Skin, The Passion of Darkly Noon and Heartless^[7] for which he has acquired a cult following.^[8][9]

As a playwright he has been cited as a pioneer of ‘In-yer-face theatre’, with his debut play The Pitchfork Disney considered to be a seminal work in the development of the style, and has also been dubbed “the key play” of the 1990s.^[10][11][12] The majority of his adult plays have been viewed as controversial, being met with both condemnation and high acclaim. One critic has stated that “Depending on your point of view, he's either Britain's sickest playwright or a singular, prolific, and amazingly visionary genius.”^[13] In contrast he is also known as the creator of an ongoing series of plays for young people (The Storyteller Sequence) and has written theatrical works for children and family audiences.^[14]

As a songwriter he has created songs for his cinematic and theatrical works, frequently collaborating with composer Nick Bicât.^[15] He and Bicât have also formed a music group called Dreamskin Cradle with singer Mary Leay.^[16] Ridley has also written songs for composer Anna Meredith, particularly operatic work.^[17]

Ridley is also a poet, photographer, and performance artist and has written drama for radio.^[18]

Although Ridley creates stories through a wide range of media he dislikes his work being categorised by the medium in which it is told, often referring to them belonging to each other as "different peaks of the same mountain."^[19][20]

Biography

Ridley was born in Bethnal Green, in the East End of London, where he lived and worked for the majority of his life until moving to Ilford.^[21] Ridley studied painting at Saint Martin's School of Art and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic of Oracle Foster.^[22] One drawing from this sequence, "Corvus Cum", portraying a man ejaculating a black bird, was exhibited at the ICA in London while Ridley was still a student and – with calls for it to be displayed behind a curtain – became a cause célèbre.^[23] Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films, including Visiting Mr Beak which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. His short film for Channel 4, The Universe of Dermot Finn, was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival, where it was a critical success and went on to receive theatrical distribution.^[24]

Ridley has written three books for adults, Crocodilia, In the Eyes of Mr. Fury, and Flamingoes in Orbit; the screenplay for The Krays^[25] feature film; 13 adult stage plays: The Pitchfork Disney, the multi-award-winning The Fastest Clock in the Universe, Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River, the controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights, Tender Napalm, Shivered, Dark Vanilla Jungle, Radiant Vermin, Tonight with Donny Stixx and Karagula; plus a further five plays for young people (known collectively as The Storyteller Sequence): Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece, Sparkleshark and Brokenville as well as a play for the whole family Feathers in the Snow.^[26] He has also directed three feature films from his own screenplays: Heartless, The Reflecting Skin – winner of 11 international awards – and The Passion of Darkly Noon^[27] (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival) and two short films, Visiting Mr Beak and The Universe of Dermot Finn.^[28]

His children's books include Scribbleboy (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Kasper in the Glitter (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Mighty Fizz Chilla (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award) and Krindlekrax (winner of both the Smarties Prize and the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award). The stage play of Krindlekrax – adapted by Ridley himself – premiered at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in the summer of 2002.

He is also a photographer – he created the cover images for Ridley: Plays 1 and Ridley: Plays 2, (published by Methuen) and regularly exhibits portraits of friends and images of East London, the two main themes of his photographic output – and a poet (his work has appeared in several collections). He co-wrote, with Nick Bicât, two songs that appeared in his film The Passion of Darkly Noon, ("Who Will Love Me Now?", sung by PJ Harvey – later covered by Sunscream – and "Look What You've Done" sung by Gavin Friday). In 2010 Ridley and Bicât formed the music group 'Dreamskin Cradle' and released their first album Songs from Grimm on all major download sites.^[29] Ridley has won both the Evening Standard's Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. He is the only person ever to receive both prizes.^[30]

Ridley's third film as writer-director, Heartless, premiered at the Frightfest horror film festival in London in August 2009.^[31] The film stars Jim Sturgess, Clémence Poésy, Noel Clarke, Eddie Marsan, Luke Treadaway, Ruth Sheen and Timothy Spall, and was released in the UK in May 2010.^[32] It was the first mainstream British film to be released across all platforms (theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray, download) at the same time.^[33] In addition, a new collection of his adult plays was published by Methuen (including Vincent River, Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass and Piranha Heights, with a new introduction by Ridley). An opera for teenagers titled Tarantula in Petrol Blue by Aldeburgh Music also premiered in 2009.

He was featured on BBC 2's flagship arts programme The Culture Show on 2 March 2012.^[34]

List of works (incomplete)

Literature

Poetry

Theatre

Radio plays

• 1989 – October Scars the Skin (script unpublished)
• 1989 – The Aquarium of Coincidences (script unpublished)
• 1991 – Shambolic Rainbow (script unpublished)

Film

Songs

Performance Art

Monologues (sometimes performed as theatrical pieces)

• 1986 - Vesper (first performed as a live art piece by Ridley in the Ten Painters Exhibition at St Martins School of Art)

Performed at Vault Zero:

• Bloodshot
• Angry
• Vooosh!
• Now
• Okay
• Wound
• It
• Killer

Exhibitions

Selected works in anthologies

• 1987 – Short Story Embracing Verdi in the collection Oranges and Lemons: Stories by Gay Men (edited by David Rees and Peter Robbins)
• 1988 – Short Story Leviathan in the collection 20 Under 35: Original Stories by Britain's Best New Young Writers (edited by Peter Straus)
• 1995 – Short Story Alien Heart in the collection Projections 4½ (edited by John Boorman and Walter Donohue)
• 1996 – Extract from The Fastest Clock in the Universe in the collection Live 3: Critical Mass (edited by David Tushingham)
• 1997 – Short Story Embracing Verdi in The Mammoth Book of Gay Short Stories (edited by Peter Burton)
• 1997 – Three poems: Someone Wants to Kill Me, The Seams and Getting Through the Day in The Bush Theatre Book (edited by Mike Bradwell)
• 2000 – Extract from Krindlekrax in the collection Out of this world
• 2003 – Poem The Silver Hat in the collection Love (edited by Fiona Waters)
• 2005 – Poem The Prince and the Snail in collection The Works 4 (edited by Gaby Morgan)
• 2005 – Three poems in collection Poems for the Retired Nihilist (edited by Graham Bendel)
• 2009 – Monologue Vesper in Modern British Playwriting: The 1990s: Voices, Documents, New Interpretations (edited by Aleks Sierz)

In media

• In the British radio and TV comedy Little Britain the character of Vicky Pollard comes from Darkley Noone council estates which is named after Ridley's film The Passion of Darkly Noon.
• The German band Troy Flamingo are named after a character from one of Ridley's short stories.
• The American band the Reflecting Skin is named after Ridley's film of the same name.
• Reece Nagra's remix of Buju Banton's song Murderer opens with an expert of dialogue from The Krays and became a drum and bass anthem.
• Phil Western's 1998 album The Escapist features excerpts of dialogue from The Reflecting Skin.
• The song Fury Eyes (from the Creatures' second album, Boomerang) is dedicated to Ridley's novel In the Eyes of Mr. Fury.
• Ridley was one of 25 contemporary British writers asked to contribute a scene to NT25 Chain Play, celebrating 25 years of the Royal National Theatre in London.
• Ridley's song Who Will Love Me Now? (as sung by P.J. Harvey) was selected as Favourite Film Song by Radio 1 in 1998. It was covered by the techno/house band Sunscreem; the cover entered the top 40 UK chart and was used in the film South West 9.
• In 1996 Hungary's the Titanic Film Festival had a major retrospective of Ridley's work.
• The song Omlagus Garfungiloops (from Coil's 1992 album Stolen & Contaminated Songs) features excerpts of dialogue from The Reflecting Skin.

Notable awards won

• The 2013 Scotsman Fringe First Award for Dark Vanilla Jungle^[45][46]
• The 2010 Toronto After Dark Film Festival Vision Award for Best Independent Feature Film for Heartless^[47]
• The 2010 Fantasporto Film Festival Best Film Award for Heartless.^[48]
• The 2010 Fantasporto Film Festival Best Director Award for Heartless.^[49]
• The 2009 Leeds International Film Festival Silver Melies Award for Heartless^[50]
• The 1993 WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award for Krindlekrax^[51]
• The 1993 Meyer-Whitworth Award for Most Promising New Playwright for The Fastest Clock in the Universe^[52]
• The 1992 Critics' Circle Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for The Fastest Clock in the Universe^[53]
• The 1992 Evening Standard Theatre Award for Most Promising Playwright for The Fastest Clock in the Universe^[54]
• The 1991 Nestle Smarties Book Prize (9 – 11 years category) for Krindlekrax^[55]
• The 1990 Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer for The Krays^[56]
• Silver Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival for The Reflecting Skin.
• Grand Prize at the Stockholm Film Festival for The Reflecting Skin.

Notable award nominations

• London Festival Fringe Best Play Award for Vincent River
• Shortlisted for the 2013 Brian Way Best New Play Award for Feathers in the Snow^[57]
• Shortlisted for the 2012 Off-West End Best New Play Award for Shivered^[58]
• Nominated 2011 London Festival Fringe Best Play Award for Tender Napalm^[59][60]
• Longlisted for the The Carnegie Medal for Mighty Fizz Chilla^[61]
• Shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book Award: The Book I Couldn't Put Down for Mighty Fizz Chilla^[62][63]
• Shortlisted for The Carnegie Medal for Scribbleboy^[64][65]
• Shortlisted for the 1995 Whitbread Children's Book Award for Kasper in the Glitter^[66]
• The Evening Standard Best New Play for Ghost From A Perfect Place
• Best Short Film at Cannes Film Festival for The Universe of Dermot Finn

References

External links

• Philip Ridley at the Internet Movie Database
• Philip Ridley Biography
• Extremely detailed list of Ridley's credits (in French), compiled by Sébastien Cagnoli
• Interview and Gallery (portuguese)
• Philip Ridley at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Philip Ridley at Library of Congress Authorities, with 29 catalogue records
• Philip Ridley Agent Page