Philip Ridley’s typically intense and adrenalised monologue first premiered online during the Covid pandemic, and seems very much of that time, with its singular performance and bare rectangle of stage. It is well worth reviving now though, not only for the urgency of its story, about a teenager who becomes a target of gang violence, but for its central hair-raising performance.
Georgie Henley plays Toni, a seemingly chirpy young woman from east London who is in fact caught in the grip of PTSD and terrifying flashbacks. She narrates the events that have led her here, from a first date – and kiss – with a boy called Michael, to a vicious attack on the street which leaves Michael dead and Toni fearing for her life.
Under the direction of Wiebke Green, it is a forensic portrait of senseless violence and its psychological fallout – from survivor’s guilt to depression, fear and denial.
Ridley’s script combines outwardly sunny dialogue with Toni’s anxious, endearing inner voice. Henley plays every character, deftly modulating the timbre of voice, accent and mannerisms. Toni herself is almost maniacally cheerful, eyes bright, voice perky, until a laugh turns into a contorted look of fear, and a playfully imitated bird whistle becomes a terrified high scream.
Ridley characteristically combines the comic with the macabre, and his script goes in several unexpected directions. Henley renders even its lesser turns credible and compelling. She combines the naive optimism and gawkiness of adolescence with the churn of dread and danger felt by Toni after the attack.
Henley circles the stage, speaking to the audience directly, as if telling her story to a good friend, and intermittently freezes, evidently ambushed by snapshots of traumatic memory. Ciaran Cunningham’s lighting design has a pointed quality, dramatic and sinister, only Toni’s face lit up by spotlight after she is assaulted.
We leave Toni still circling, caught in the trap of her denials. It is an immensely energetic, tour de force performance; despite the harrowing subject matter, you simply want it to go on and on.
• At the Arcola theatre, London until 25 January
