In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel at The Yard Theatre

Few things, if any, get me more excited than a new Philip Ridley play at a new theatre in a not so well known corner of London, and this ticked all three boxes.

This was the first production of In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel so it was new to everyone, not just me.

The Yard Theatre is in trendy Hackney Wick close to River Lea and Hertford Union Canal. I had been to that area a few times on long cross-London walks, and had set a world record for paying for a coffee nearby, but had not had the excuse to linger there before.

Thanks to London Overground, Hackney Wick is very easy for me to get to and we set off just after lunch. We again met fellow Ridley fan Julie there and did some mooching around the heavily graffitied industrial buildings before pausing for hot drinks (more affordable this time) just the other side of the river.

The Yard Theatre was, unsurprisingly, in an industrial yard that it shared with other hospitality spaces. We went in with enough time to have a late afternoon beer before the performance. Philip Ridley was also in the bar, the fourth or fifth time I had seen him at a theatre. I avoided playing fan-boy and left him to get on with whatever he was doing though I was pleased when he recognised me and said hello as we queued to go in.

I loved the set and it told me I was going to love the play.

Philip Ridley plays come in various forms and this one was fairly traditional with a chronological story told by several characters through a series of scenes. But, being Ridley, the story and characters were nicely strange.

The story was a familiar one too, peasants rebelling against a brutal totalitarian state, and contained some familiar tropes, like people with supernatural abilities and with titles like Healer, but these were just comprehensible objects for Ridley to hang his wild ideas on.

And there were a lot of wild ideas thrown into the long mix. I was conscious that I was enjoying the ride but was travelling so fast that I was missing many things. The mix was incredibly satisfying and the many diverse elements worked well together, this was a proper feast not a work's do buffet.

The sheer weight of ideas needed a large cast to carry it and there were around a dozen actors buzzing around the stage as the story evolved and the scenes changed. The most extreme character was the brutal soldier leader for the state who was also the ruler's brother, he was both camp and sadistic. Exchanging a few quick words afterwards in the bar the actor, still in stage make-up, said what a delight it was to play that character. 

I cannot begin to understand why Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama commissioned this work heavily placed in East London, as Ridley plays often are (but I missed any mention of Victoria Park), nor why there were so few performances. I can only hope that having started its life so brilliantly that In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel gets another run somewhere soon so I can see it again to enjoy it again and to fill in some of the ideas that I missed on my first passing.

It is hard to categorise or compare Ridley plays but none of them have hit me as hard as In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel did since Ghost From A Perfect Place nine years ago. I would love to see that play again too.

We had not yet finished with Hackney Wick. It was early evening and we wanted food. At the other end of the yard, beside the river, we found CRATE Brewery and Pizzeria which was full of lively twenty somethings (on a Tuesday night) so us there sixty somethings joined them. The location, food, drink and atmosphere were just what we needed.