Radiant Vermin NYC Reviews and Tickets

“David Mercatali’s direction is brisk and brutally bouncy...An absurdist satire, at once an indictment against not only the housing crisis, but our godless society and social indifference toward the less fortunate...Why do we find this humorous and entertaining?...A distance has been created by the playwright between the word and the reality of the action through humor, clever dialogue and the virtuosity of the actors to use pantomime to create their slow progress into hell.”
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"David Mercatali’s adroit production also feels like a theatrical game, albeit a hugely pointed one...Mr. Ridley casts a sidelong glance at contemporary mores with a satiric finesse worthy of his vaunted former countryman Jonathan Swift...Mr. Ridley has a field day setting the apparent sunniness of his young lovers against their escalating misdeeds in a play that questions whether we are our brother’s keeper or his destroyer."
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"It’s a hysterically heavy-handed allegory for the ravages of gentrification...But ‘Radiant Vermin’ works because it’s dispatched with such flippant glee by the writer, cast and director David Mercatali. We laugh at Jill and Ollie because they’re so exuberantly unmenacing, and because we recognize that their killings aren’t really killings but a metaphor...It’s hard to feel too indicted when the whole thing is so frothily light and loopily enjoyable; the thing is it’s really enjoyable."
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"A darkly funny morality play that implicates the audience without hitting it over the head…In outline, it sounds like one of those Ionesco plays of the 1950s in which an absurd premise is pursued with remorseless logic. But Ridley’s play is far subtler than that insofar as it shows how decent people are driven by desperation to stifle their consciences...Ridley suggests we live in a madly materialistic world where enough is never enough."
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"It's a piquant little satire...Ridley makes it abundantly clear that social climbing implies a social cost, namely those tramped down underfoot, and he's sharp on the way one's blessings calcify into one's just deserts...David Mercatali's production has a real spring in its step, reveling in its cartoon violence and pastiching everything from 'Changing Rooms' to J.G. Ballard...Sean Michael Verey captures the quivering anxiety and wet-fish compliance of the capitalist workforce."
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"Endlessly inventive…Every element of the show works perfectly, with the well-signposted birthday party from hell arriving as a suitable climax in what is an episode of bravura directing and acting. At this point, the sheer joy of the performers is wonderful to watch...Whether because of the heartbreaking testimony of a homeless woman, or the cast’s vivid representation of the temptations of consumer capitalism, 'Radiant Vermin' will shine brightly in my memory."
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"It’s heavy-legged and obvious in places, but it is finely tuned in its way, a fable-like tale, glittering with menace and laced with the supernatural...There’s this absolutely extraordinary sequence where Whelan and Verey, recreate a garden party; they populate the entire stage with characters, and it’s the most precise, intense and breathtaking piece of performance, masterfully directed by David Mercatali, and it kicks the whole production up into the realms of the brilliant."
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"Philip Ridley’s plays tend to be grotesque and explosive. Their language is dense and their characters monstrous. Here he returns to a familiar theme — that apocalypse is imminent — but his approach is more accessible and overtly political than usual…He’s on stingingly funny form…Director David Mercatali is an experienced interpreter of Ridley’s work and infuses his production with fierce energy. There are dazzling performances from Gemma Whelan and Sean Michael Verey."
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