As part of her ongoing post-show Q&A series, on Tuesday 4 June 2019, Mates co-founder Terri Paddock hosts a special post-show discussion on homophobia and hate crime at Philip Ridley’s Vincent River. Got any questions?
The night after my main house post-show event to The Wardrobe Ensemble’s Education Education Education, I’ll return for this far more intimate affair in Trafalgar Studios 2 to Vincent River, my fifth post-show Q&A for a Philip Ridley play.
Davey has seen something he can never forget. Anita has been forced to flee her home. Tonight, they meet for the first time… and their lives will change forever.
Philip Ridley’s modern classic was a huge success when it premiered at Hampstead Theatre in 2001, and previously a West End smash at Trafalgar Studios in 2007. Vincent River has now returned to Studio 2 in this critically acclaimed production, which stars Thomas Mahy and Louise Jameson and transfers from the Park Theatre.
Thrilling, heartbreaking and darkly humorous by turns, it is now seen as one of the most powerful explorations of hate crime – and society’s need to crush ‘difference’ – ever written.
Director Robert Chevara comments:
“Vincent River is a modern classic and a dazzling, prescient piece of theatre. The play is even more prophetic now than when it was first produced. The murder of Jo Cox MP in 2016 shocked the nation and hate crimes have risen by 17% this last year alone. But hate crimes against LGBT people in the UK have surged over 78% in the last five years.
“One in five LGBT people have experienced a hate crime because of their sexual orientation in the last 12 months and four in five younger LGBT people have not reported the hate crimes they’ve endured, and are particularly reluctant to go to the police.”
For this discussion, I’ll be joined to discuss the issues, and real-life hate crime, by Emma Miller-McCaffrey from Diversity Role Models, who actively seek to embed inclusion and empathy in the next generation, and William Mayrick, who was attacked on the London Underground last year and forced to apologise being gay.
Join us after the 7.45pm performance of Vincent River on Tuesday 4 June 2019. If you can’t be there in person that night, tune in to @MyTheatreMates on Twitter and Facebook for live-tweeting and live-streaming of the discussion.
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Terri Paddock founded WhatsOnStage.com and the WhatsOnStage Awards, running the company and its events from 1996 to 2013. Terri is also the author of two novels, Come Clean and Beware the Dwarfs, and has previously written for the Evening Standard, Independent, The Times and other national publications. She is renowned for her 'legendary' post-show Q&As and also produces the annual Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and acts as a digital, content strategy and event consultant for theatre, producers and other clients. She tweets about theatre at @TerriPaddock.
