Philip Ridley’s Shivered is, in a word, brutal. The stage, upon which everything is painted stark white and then smeared with dirt and grime, is home to a series of out-of-order vignettes that flicker past the audience without clear beginnings or ends. We’re cast adrift in time and our disorientation is only magnified by the multi-coloured and unremittingly harsh neon lights that flood the stage and the groaning darkness that fills the space between the stranded scenes. Ridley pushes us through a disorienting first act into a broken world where broken individuals seek desperate connections and find nothing but more heartache and pain at the end of their fleeting relationships and the tragic circumstances of their lives.
With all this doom and gloom settling over the characters, it comes as a relief that there’s ample humour to be had, too, however black. The irreverent friendship shared by Ryan (Josh Anderson) and Jack (Liam Nunan) is full of charming non sequiturs and Jack’s encyclopedic knowledge of rather obscene video clips he’s seen online, while Gordy (Andrew Johnston) lends every scene he’s in a feeling of the fairground with his ready smile and game-show mannerisms. As the characters crumble towards the finish, we’re flung past moments so intensely personal as to make us feel voyeuristic, but Ridley’s ability to fabricate absolutely genuine relationships and emotions in so disjointed a timeline keeps our attention firmly riveted on the stage.
