“Of course – as you've no doubt guessed – there's a big 'But Then' moment heading this way…”
It’s a sunny, spring day in East London. On a street corner, two teenagers kiss. One of them is Toni. This is her first kiss.
It makes her very happy.
But someone is watching.
Someone who doesn’t care about her happiness at all.
And they’re about to change Toni’s life… forever.
Arcola Theatre presents the live premiere of Philip Ridley’s Tarantula. A startling exploration of identity, memory, love, and the lengths it takes someone to free themselves from the web of their past.
Post-show talks
In conversation – Georgie Henley and Wiebke Green – Wednesday 15 January 2025
Join the star and director of Tarantula for an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at their journey to bring this gripping play to life. Explore the unique challenges of creating a one-person show, gain insights into their remarkable careers and have your burning questions answered in a lively audience Q&A.
Interviewed by Wiebke Green – Wednesday 22 January 2025
Described by critic Aleks Sierz as ‘the most innovative and exciting contemporary British writer’ Philip Ridley has been challenging audiences and pushing boundaries for over three decades. Join him in conversation with long-time collaborator Wiebke Green as he shares compelling insights into his life and groundbreaking work. Plus, take the opportunity to ask Philip your questions during an engaging Q&A session.
Captioned Performance – Thursday 16th January 2025 (Captions will be projected Stage Right.)
Relaxed Performance – Saturday 18th January 2025 (matinee) – 3:30pm
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Running time
Approx 90 mins -
Age guidance
13+ -
Content warnings
"A stunning solo turn in a complex but incredible piece of writing."
"This is one of the performances of the year so early into 2025. The volatility, unpredictability and fragility of Henley’s take on Toni is shocking, engrossing and emphatic. An unbelievable talent."
"A searing intensity... exceptional acting, astutely observed writing, and masterful staging unite into a powerful piece of theatre."
"This is a real triumph of a performance that sends shivers round the room."
"Henley is just mesmeric ... it lingers with you"
"It is an immensely energetic, tour de force performance; despite the harrowing subject matter, you simply want it to go on and on."
"Her performance is courageous and raw. It is a magnificent and terrible thing to watch."
"Tarantula is a mesmerising exploration of identity, memory, and the human psyche that leaves audiences spellbound."
"A terrific piece of contemporary theatre"
"A perfect example of how talent doesn’t need a lot of surrounding effects and impressive scenery to shine."
"Tarantula is a powerful and memorable piece of theatre, one that will linger in my mind."
"An absorbing and energetic production with food for thought."
"Poignant, enchanting and consecutively haunting"
"Georgie Henley’s performance is very empathetic ...her portrayal of Toni is excellent"
"The finest one-person show we’ll see all year...This stunning performance from Henley ought to garner awards."
"Scorchingly intense performance from Henley... setting the bar way high for every other actor to follow the rest of this year"
"Ridley’s text is a masterpiece of precision and impassioned storytelling...Green’s riveting production, with Henley’s wonderfully crafted and utterly convincing performance, is a real treat. The fury of her delivery chills the blood. Adrenaline high: hair-raising, compelling, but also strangely satisfying. And so alive when live."
Rehearsal photos
The Company
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Georgie Henley
Toni
Georgie Henley
Toni
Georgie Henley is an actress, writer and director. She is best known as young LUCY in all three NARNIA franchise films. She is a graduate of Cambridge University, where she starred in and directed many theatre productions and wrote and directed her first short film, TIDE.
Since graduating Georgie has starred in several acclaimed TV and Film Productions. Most recently she is seen as Pensy in THE DIPLOMAT for Netflix, and as Grace Greenwood in Channel 4’s PARTYGATE, which won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Single Drama.
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Philip Ridley
Writer
Philip Ridley
Writer
Philip was born and grew up in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art. He has written many highly regarded and hugely influential stage plays: the seminal The Pitchfork Disney (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), The Fastest Clock in the Universe (winner of a Time Out Award, the Critics’ Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright, and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize), Ghost from a Perfect Place, Vincent River (nominated for the London Festival Fringe Best Play Award), the highly controversial Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights (nominated for the WhatsOnStage Mobius Award for Best Off West End Production), Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award), Shivered (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award), Radiant Vermin (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic), Tonight With Donny Stixx, Karagula (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play Award), The Beast of Blue Yonder, The Poltergeist (winner of the OffWestEnd OnComm Award for Best Live Streamed Play) and Tarantula; plus several plays for young people (collectively known as The Storyteller Sequence): Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children’s Books), the seminal Sparkleshark (the first of the Connections Festival plays for young people to be staged professionally by the National Theatre), and Brokenville; also, Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award). In 2012 What’s On Stage named Philip a Jubilee Playwright (one of the most influential writers to have emerged in the past six decades).
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Wiebke Green
Director
Wiebke Green
Director
Wiebke Green trained at the Orange Tree Theatre and as Intern Director to Katie Mitchell on Orlando (Schaubühne Berlin) and Anatomie eines Suizids (Schauspielhaus Hamburg).
Her recent work includes: The New York Times Critics’ Pick The Poltergeist (Southwark Playhouse & Arcola Theatre), multiple Offie nominated The Journey to Venice (Finborough Theatre), Union (Arcola), amongst others.
Assistant Direction includes Scrounger (dir. Lily McLeisch, Finborough Theatre), Dealing with Clair (dir. Richard Twyman, Orange Tree), The Frontier Trilogy and Sirenia (dir. Jethro Compton, Edinburgh Fringe).
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Ciaran Cunningham
Lighting Designer
Ciaran Cunningham
Lighting Designer
Lighting design credits include: Gigi & Dar (Alcola Theatre); SKELETON CREW (Donmar Warehouse); Silence ( Donmar warehouse) Cinderella (Lyric hammersmith theatre); Tambo & Bones (Theatre Royal Stratford East & ATC); Mansfield Park (Watermill Theatre & Tour); Hey Duggee – Olivier Award Winner (South Bank Centre & Uk & Ireland Tour); Silence (Donmar Warehouse & Tara Theatre); An Unfinished Man (The Yard Theatre); The Sh*Ts (Leeds Playhouse & The Bush Theatre); Freedom Project (Leeds Playhouse); Me For The World (Young Vic); Amsterdam (ATC & Orange Tree & Uk Tour); Blood Knot (Orange Tree Theatre); One Night In Miami (Nottingham Playhouse / Bristol Old Vic & Home Manchester); Suckerpunch Boom Suite (Barbican Theatre / Nitrobeat); Eden (Hampstead Theatre); Sleeping Beauty (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Shebeen (Nottingham Play House &
Theatre Royal Stratford East); Last Days Of Iscariot (Vanbrugh Theatre); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre); Into The Woods, Brink (Royal Exchange Theatre); Wish List (Royal Exchange Theatre & The Royal Court); Sizwe Banzi Is Dead (Young Vic / Uk Tour); Sound Of Yellow (Young Vic); Sense Of Sound’s: Migration Music (Liverpool Everyman Theatre); Scrappers (Liverpool Playhouse); In His Hands; Re:Definition (Hackney Empire) Blackout (The Dukes Theatre); The Mountaintop (Welsh National Tour); When Chaplin Met Gandhi (Kingsley Hall); Normal (Rift); Chris Dugdale: 2 Face Deception (Leicester Square Theatre); Letter To Larry (Jermyn Street Theatre). -
Jack Hathaway
Associate Lighting Designer/Programmer
Jack Hathaway
Associate Lighting Designer/Programmer
Jack is a multidisciplinary Lighting Designer working across all aspects of performance and visual art. He is interested in how light can be used as a form of communication and how it can augment what we perceive as spectators and participants. Jack also works as a maker, working closely with companies seeking to integrate innovative stagecraft and new technologies into a performance lighting context.
Credits include: Damien Nettles, Quay Arts (Deadman) The Stone God, Bloomsbury Theatre (Arcadian Opera) Empty But Solid, Excelsior Studios (Shiyu Lu) I Really Do Think This Will Change Your Life, Mercury Theatre (ThickSkin/Mercury) Still Lives, The Waiting Room Peckham Rye (Lost text found space) Romeo & Juliet (New Wolsey) Sometimes, Sadlers Wells & Touring (J Neve Harrington) The Freshwater Five, UK Tour (Deadman) Hot in Here (Gate Theatre) ADA (NYT) WeeverFish (Webber Douglas, RCCSD) As Associate: Macbeth LD: Azusa Ono (English Touring Theatre, Touring/Bristol Old Vic) Aurora LD: Azusa Ono (Invisible Flock, Toxteth Reservoir) The Magic Flute LD: Mannie Manim, Isango Ensemble(Boston Cutler Majestic Theatre)
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Kit Hinchcliffe
Costume and Set Design
Kit Hinchcliffe
Costume and Set Design
Kit trained at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. Since graduating, her work has spanned theatre, dance and installation. She is Co-Artistic Director of Lidless Theatre and regularly collaborates with Architecture Social Club as Designer/Fabricator.
Work includes:
Miss Julie (Park Theatre), Copper Beaches (Corbett Theatre), Leaves of Glass (Park Theatre), Oresteia (Corbett Theatre), The Journey to Venice (Finborough Theatre),The Poltogist (Arcola), Camino Real and Cymbeline (Bridewell Theatre), Mapping Gender (BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Cambridge Junction and The Place), A Hideous Monstrous Verminous Creature (The Place), La bohème (King’s Head Theatre), Boys (Barbican Centre), Festen (Corbett Theatre), Tender Napalm (King’s Head Theatre), Well Lit (Dansstationen Malmö and The Place), Moonfleece (Pleasance), Pebbles (Katzpace), Heroes (Bridge House Theatre), Beetles from the West (Hope Theatre), Fundamentals (Platform TheatreKX).
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Louisa (Lola) Glading
Stage Manager
Louisa (Lola) Glading
Stage Manager
Lola studied at Mountview Academy on their Theatre Production Arts Course. Her work spans across Opera, Theatre, Dance and site specific creations.
Her recent credits include Stage Manager on ‘Paradise Lost’ (Uk Tour), ‘Songs for S**** Girls’ (The Other Palace), Cutting The Tightrope (Arcola Theatre). Additionally Lola has worked on productions such as 2:22 (Gielgud Theatre), Witness For The Prosecutions (County Town Hall), ’Stranger Things’ (Phoenix Theatre), Les Miserables (Sondheim Theatre), Phantom Of The Opera (His Majesty’s Theatre), Good (Harold Pinter Theatre), Aspects Of Love (Lyric Theatre) Oklahoma (Wyndham’s Theatre), Patriots (Noel Coward Theatre) and Player Kings (Noel Coward Theatre).
Further work includes multiple productions with both The National Theatre and The Royal Opera House. -
Charles Flint Photography
Artwork Photography
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Richard Scarborough
Graphic Design