A SPECIAL THEATRE EVENT!
Award–winning writer Philip Ridley’s two most recent plays – The Poltergeist and Tarantula – received standing ovations, critical acclaim, and a clutch of OFFIE nominations when they premiered at the Arcola Theatre in 2022 and earlier this year.
Now these two ‘theatrical rollercoasters’ have been brought together in repertoire, re-imagined by their original director Wiebke Green – with a new design and new cast – offering an opportunity to explore how Ridley’s themes of family, love, memory and East London weave and reverberate through both of these thrilling and darkly comic plays.
TARANTULA
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.
This one woman play is a startling exploration of identity, memory, love, and the lengths it takes someone to free themselves from the web of their past.
Praise for Tarantula
★★★★ “Unmissable...Ridley's words explode” – Everything Theatre
★★★★ “Theatre at its most powerful” – Theatre Weekly
★★★★ “Compelling...it lingers with you” – The Stage
