Philip Ridley is an English playwright, filmmaker, writer, and multi-disciplinary artist. He has produced works in a wide variety of mediums and genres, and has self-described as a "storyteller".
As a dramatist, he has been described as "a pioneer of In-yer-face theatre", which is a style and sensibility of drama that characterised many new plays that were performed in Britain during the 1990s. Ridley's debut play, The Pitchfork Disney (1991), is considered by many to be a seminal work that influenced the development of this form of theatre. One critic dubbed it "the key play" of the 1990s. He is also recognised for creating an ongoing series of plays for young people (The Storyteller Sequence).
As a visual artist he has been cited as a contemporary of the Young British Artists, and had his artwork exhibited internationally. In film, he is perhaps best known for his award-winning screenplay for the film, The Krays (1990), a biopic about the Kray twins which was directed by Peter Medak. As a filmmaker in his own right, he created a loose trilogy of horror films: The Reflecting Skin (1990), The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) and Heartless (2009) for which he has acquired a cult following.
Ridley is also a novelist, songwriter, poet, photographer, performance artist, and has written drama for radio.
Life and career Ridley was born in Bethnal Green in the East End of London, where he lived and worked until moving to another part of East London, Ilford, in 2014. Ridley studied painting at Saint Martin's School of Art, and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. Ridley is gay.
He started as both a performance artist and the creator of a long sequence of charcoal drawings called The Epic of Oracle Foster. 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. With calls by some viewers for it to be displayed behind a curtain, it became a cause célèbre. Ridley also started his own theatre group as a student, acting in many of the productions, and made several short art films.
Writing
Ridley has written three books for adults: Crocodilia (1988), In the Eyes of Mr. Fury (1989), and Flamingoes in Orbit (1990).
His children's novels include Mercedes Ice (1989), Dakota of the White Flats (1989), Krindlekrax (1991) (winner of the Smarties Prize and the WH Smith Mind-Boggling Book Award), Meteorite Spoon (1994), Kasper in the Glitter (1994) (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), Scribbleboy (1997) (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), Zinderzunder (1998), Vinegar Street (2000), Mighty Fizz Chilla (2002) (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), and Zip's Apollo (2005). He also has written two short stories for younger children, Dreamboat Zing (1996) and The Hooligan's Shampoo (1996).
Film
After graduating from St Martin's, Ridley created the short film, Visiting Mr Beak (1987), which starred the veteran actor Guy Rolfe. The next year he created a short film for Channel 4 called The Universe of Dermot Finn (1988), which featured renowned actress Sheila Hancock and was officially selected for the Cannes Film Festival. A critical success there, it received theatrical distribution.
While still a student at St Martin's, Ridley wrote a screenplay for The Krays (1990), which was directed by Peter Medak and starred real-life brothers Gary Kemp and Martin Kemp. They had previously been recognised for their band, Spandau Ballet.
Ridley has also directed three feature films from his own screenplays: The Reflecting Skin (1990) (winner of 11 international awards), The Passion of Darkly Noon (1995) (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival), and Heartless (2009).
Ridley's third film as writer-director, Heartless, premiered at the Frightfest horror film festival in London in August 2009. 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. It was the first mainstream British film to be released across all platforms (theatrical, DVD, Blu-ray, download) at the same time.
In 1996 Hungary's Titanic Film Festival had a retrospective of Ridley's work.
Theatre
Ridley has written many adult stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney (1990), the multi-award-winning The Fastest Clock in the Universe (1992), Ghost from a Perfect Place (1994), Vincent River (2000), the controversial Mercury Fur (2005), Leaves of Glass (2007), Piranha Heights (2008), Tender Napalm (2011), Shivered (2012), Dark Vanilla Jungle (2013), Radiant Vermin (2015), Tonight with Donny Stixx (2015), Karagula (2016), The Poltergeist (2020), Tarantula (2021), Copper Beeches, and In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel (2023).url=https://old.theyardtheatre.co.uk/theatre/events/royal-welsh-new-23-festival/
Ridley has also written various monologues, many of which have been selectively performed together onstage. This includes Killer (consisting of the monologues Killer, Sledgehammers, and Vesper) performed in 2017, Angry (consisting of the monologues Angry, Okay, Bloodshot, Dancing, Now, and Air) performed in 2018, and The Beast Will Rise (consisting of the monologues Performance, Gators, Star, Rosewater, and Cactus) performed in 2020.
Ridley is additionally known for his series of plays for young people (known collectively as The Storyteller Sequence), consisting of Karamazoo (2004), Fairytaleheart (1998), Moonfleece (2004), Sparkleshark, and Brokenville (2003).
He has also written two plays for young children, Daffodil Scissors (2004) and Krindlekrax (2002) - a stage adaptation of his successful children's novel of the same name - as well as a play for the whole family, Feathers in the Snow (2012).
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.
Music
Ridley has written a wide range of songs, some of which have featured in his plays, films, and novels. As a student Ridley participated in music by creating work with a band called Haunted Staircase (who released their double-sided record Flutters in the early 1980s). He also worked as a DJ.
As a songwriter he has regularly collaborated with composer, Nick Bicât. For Ridley's film, The Passion of Darkly Noon, they created two songs: "Look What You've Done" (sung by Gavin Friday) and "Who Will Love Me Now?" (sung by PJ Harvey), the latter of which was voted as BBC Radio 1's Best Film Song of 1998. It was later covered by the techno/house band Sunscreem as Please Save Me, whose cover entered the UK top 40 chart, became a cult hit in clubs, and featured in the film South West 9. For his film Heartless, Ridley and Bicât created ten songs (performed by Mary Leay, Joe Echo, and lead actor Jim Sturgess).
In 2010 Ridley and Bicât formed the music group, 'Dreamskin Cradle' (with singer Mary Leay). The group's first album, Songs from Grimm (2014), consisted of twelve songs inspired by female characters in Brothers Grimm fairy tales; it was released on all major download sites. Some songs from the album were performed as part of a live performance called Grimm Tales, which was developed by the St Paul's Institute and featured readings by actress Jeany Spark, reflections from Canon Edmund Newell, and extracts from Brothers Grimm fairy tales adapted by poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Dreamskin Cradle have also released two singles: Fade and Float (written for Ridley's stage play, Tender Napalm) and Ladybird First (written for Ridley's stage play, Dark Vanilla Jungle).
Ridley also has written the libretto of an opera for teenagers titled Tarantula in Petrol Blue. With music composed by Anna Meredith, it had its premiere in 2009.
Other work
Ridley is a photographer, and his images have appeared on the covers of some of his published plays. He also has had photography exhibitions, mainly consisting of portraits of his friends and images of East London.
Ridley is also a poet. Some poetry has been published in anthologies, and he has earned a following for his ongoing series of performance poetry, Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures.
Ridley has won the Evening Standard awards for Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright. He is the only person ever to receive both prizes.
He was featured on BBC2's arts programme, The Culture Show, on 2 March 2012.
Ridley dislikes his work being categorised by the medium in which it is told, often referring to the different genre pieces belonging to each other as "different peaks of the same mountain."
List of works
Literature
Works for Adults 1986 – Embracing Verdi (short story) 1987 – Leviathan (short story) 1988 – Crocodilia (novel) 1989 – In the Eyes of Mr. Fury (novel, expanded version published in 2016) 1990 – Flamingoes in Orbit (short story collection, expanded version published in 2018) 1995 – Alien Heart (short story) 1997 – Introduction to Philip Ridley Plays: 1 (semi-autobiographical prose, extended and updated versions published in 2002 and 2012) 1998 – Wonderful Insect (short story) 2009 – Introduction to Philip Ridley Plays: 2 (semi-autobiographical prose) 2021 – Sunday (short story)
Works for Children 1989 – Mercedes Ice (novel) 1989 – Dakota of the White Flats (novel) 1991 – Krindlekrax (novel) 1994 – Meteorite Spoon (novel) 1995 – Kasper in the Glitter (novel) 1997 – Scribbleboy (novel) 1998 – Zinderzunder (novel) 2000 – Vinegar Street (novel) 2002 – Mighty Fizz Chilla (novel) 2005 – Zip's Apollo (novel)
Works for Younger Children 1996 – The Hooligan's Shampoo (short story) 1996 – Dreamboat Zing (short story)
Poetry
Ongoing performance sequence - Lovesongs for Extinct Creatures: Your Love Dark Sky Craving The Silver Hat I'm Waiting to be Killed The Seams
Performance sequence - Heartbeat on the Horizon: Press Conference After Flash Boom Shrapnel I Will
Miscellaneous poetry: The Dying Lizard Man Someone Wants to Kill Me Again Getting Through The Day The Prince and the Snail Waiting For Faces To Fall I Am The Boy Sparkling Cannibals
Theatre
Adult Stage Plays 1991 – The Pitchfork Disney 1992 – The Fastest Clock in the Universe 1994 – Ghost from a Perfect Place 2000 – Vincent River 2005 – Mercury Fur 2007 – Leaves of Glass 2008 – Piranha Heights 2011 – Tender Napalm 2012 – Shivered 2013 – Dark Vanilla Jungle 2015 – Radiant Vermin 2015 – Tonight with Donny Stixx 2016 – Karagula 2017 – The Beast of Blue Yonder 2020 – The Poltergeist 2021 – Tarantula 2023 – In The Forest of Starlight and Shrapnel 2024 – Copper Beeches
Libretto 2007 – On Such A Day (short operatic piece) 2009 – Tarantula in Petrol Blue (opera for teenagers)
Plays for Young People (The Storyteller Sequence) 1997 – Sparkleshark (professional premiere in 1999) 1998 – Fairytaleheart (also worked as the director of the original stage production) 2000 – Brokenville (performed earlier as a work-in-progress under the title Apocalyptica in 1998) 2004 – Moonfleece (professional premiere in 2010) 2004 – Karamazoo (monologue) Play for the Whole Family 2012 – Feathers in the Snow
Plays for Children 2000 – Scribbleboy (adapted by Ridley from his children's novel of the same name. Play unproduced and script unpublished) 2002 – Krindlekrax (adapted by Ridley from his children's novel of the same name) 2004 – Daffodil Scissors
Monologues (sometimes performed as Live Art) 1986 – Vesper (first performed as a live art piece by Ridley in the Ten Painters Exhibition at St Martins School of Art) ???? – Bloodshot ???? – Angry ???? – Vooosh! ???? – Now ???? – Okay ???? – Wound ???? – It 2013 – Dark Vanilla Jungle 2015 – Tonight with Donny Stixx 2017 – Killer 2017 – Sledgehammers 2018 – Dancing Monologues presented as theatre pieces: