Performances begin this week for Lidless Theatre’s tenth-anniversary revival of Philip Ridley’s “jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, expectation-topping” play Tender Napalm. We caught up with the company in rehearsals. Check out our behind-the-scenes interviews and photo gallery. Time to get booking!
The production, helmed by Lidless artistic director Max Harrison, will have a limited season at London’s King’s Head Theatre from 26 October to 20 November 2021, with a press night on 28 October and a post-show Q&A chaired by MyTheatreMates founder Terri Paddock on 9 November.
“It’s jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, expectation-topping stuff that will leave an audience stunned and spinning”
Two lovers. A desert Island. Sea serpents. UFOs. Tsunamis. Unicorns. Atomic bombs. What is this thing…called love? This brutal yet tender two-hander explores the highs and lows of a romantic relationship through a series of vignettes ranging from the fantastical to the very basest of human emotions – raw and visceral, dangerously honest.
This tenth-anniversary production is the first London revival and is presented at the recommendation of Philip Ridley himself, after seeing Lidless Theatre’s 2018 production of Moonfleece.
Rehearsal photos
Tender Napalm stars Jaz Hutchins and Adeline Waby, who previously featured in Lidless Theatre’s production of Philip Ridley’s Moonfleece, also directed by Max Harrison. Photography by Flavia Fraser-Cannon.
Rehearsal interviews
Director Max Harrison, movement director Sam Angell, and stars Jaz Hutchins and Adeline Waby also took a break from rehearsals to tell us more about the show.
We couldn’t help but ask Max Harrison a few extra questions as well!
What’s the most exciting thing about doing a Philip Ridley play?
The images and the spectacle. There are literally thousands of images in this play that take the audience through a universe on a journey to discover the landscape of one relationship. Its breathtaking show-stopping stuff with razor-sharp storytelling catapulted through a narrative at breakneck speed. The audience’s job is to keep up.
Have there been any big revelations in the rehearsal room?
The biggest one is the physicality of it – this is pure in-yer-face physical theatre, heightened to the realm of imagination. The actors have thrown themselves into the physicality of it and as soon as that happens it unlocks the whole play.
Why should people come and see Tender Napalm?
It’s jaw-dropping, heart-stopping, expectation-topping stuff that will leave an audience stunned and spinning. It’s more a theme park ride than a theatre piece. If you want a post-pandemic thrill, grab a ticket, grab a mate, and grab your seat.