Riley Elton McCarthy brings their acclaimed queer horror play Ivories to London for its stage premiere at the Old Red Lion Theatre this July. Known for their provocative and genre-bending work, McCarthy stars as Sloane in this chilling tale of family secrets, haunted houses, and tragicomic twists.
Directed by Georgie Rankom, Ivories has already captivated audiences in New York and at the Edinburgh Fringe. The London production features a cast of rising international talent, all making their London stage debuts.
Ivories runs from 1–26 July 2025 at the Old Red Lion Theatre, with press night on Thursday 3 July at 7:30pm. Tickets are available now at oldredliontheatre.co.uk.
You’re bringing Ivories to the Old Red Lion Theatre — what can you tell us about the show?
Ivories is an intimate psychological thriller set in a house full of secrets, and staged in a space that makes you feel like you’ve stepped right into it. When Sloane returns home with their husband to settle their dying grandmother’s estate, the house becomes a site of unravelling: repressed memories surface, their marriage begins to fracture, and something in the basement starts to call. As their best friend uncovers long-buried truths, the line between haunting and inheritance begins to blur.
It’s a love letter to the golden age of horror… a slow-burn descent into tragicomic depravity, filled with eerie quiet, flickering light, and moments that will catch in your throat. But beneath the suspense, it’s a story about silence, survival, and what we carry from one generation to the next. With Georgie Rancom’s eerie direction and a fiercely connected ensemble, this version is the most emotionally exposed and viscerally crafted staging Ivories has had yet.
It’s horror that whispers… until it doesn’t. And in a venue like the Old Red Lion, there’s no escaping what’s buried just beneath the floorboards.
Ivories has already had successful runs in New York and at the Edinburgh Fringe. What excites you most about bringing it to London for the first time?
I’m genuinely so excited! This is a completely new production of Ivories, reimagined for a London audience, and the first full production I’ve actually been part of. The play’s had beautiful runs at Yale and in North Carolina, and it’s heading to Texas next spring, but this is the longest run yet, and definitely the biggest version of it so far.
Working with Georgie and the company has been incredible. We’ve done some really meaningful revisions to the script, and what Georgie is building is unlike anything I’ve seen… unsettling in all the best ways. It’s also the first time we’ve had such an international company: Matthías (Gwyn) is Icelandic, Dan (Beckham) is from Hull, I’m Danish and Irish, and Ashley (The Neighbor) is American. That mix has brought so much openness and new perspective to the room.
This version of Ivories feels really fresh. It’s a new take on the story, with a team that’s making it something truly special. I can’t wait for London to be the first to experience this chapter of the play’s life.
The play blends horror with dark comedy and queer themes. How do you balance those tones as both writer and performer?
I’ve always said horror and comedy are cousins. Both live in tension, timing, and the totally inappropriate. Add queerness to that and you’ve basically described my entire worldview. As a writer, I lean into that overlap. Horror in Ivories creeps up through the cracks. It’s dread you don’t notice until it’s already got you by the throat. And then, just when the pressure’s highest, someone says the absolute worst possible thing at the worst possible time, and the audience laughs in relief or shock. That’s where the dark comedy lives: in how human it all is. Horror gets under your skin. Comedy lets it out.
I didn’t write the character of Sloane for myself. I sat on the sidelines as just the playwright for many productions of the play. At the premiere at The Tank in 2021, a friend leaned in and whispered to me, “you should be playing that role”. Sloane has always been the most difficult piece of the puzzle, and I’d all but abandoned acting until two years later I found the courage to take on the role. It was extremely scary for me and I hadn’t been on a stage in years when I did! It completely changed my process with Ivories until I could find a version of this character I felt worked in this story, which I mostly figured out alone. I’ve gotten to have an entirely new process with this production and work primarily as an actor on Ivories, thanks to Georgie, and that is something I am grateful for.
As a performer, my process is extremely physical as my character undergoes quite a dramatic transformation over the course of 90 minutes and requires quite an emotional workout as they process their grief and feeling trapped in a life that they maybe wish had gone differently. I’m constantly thinking about shapes. How Sloane holds tension in their body, what’s revealed in a glance or a shift in posture, how stillness can be just as loud as screaming, etc. I find horror to be circumstantially funny: it’s not about mugging, it’s about letting the audience feel the awkwardness of being alive in a very wrong moment. A flicker of recognition in the middle of something terrifying; that’s the sweet spot. It’s all about staying present, grounded, and aware of how much a single gesture can betray.
And honestly? Queer folks are experts at that balance. We’ve always known how to survive the horror with a joke and a knowing glance. Ivories just turns up the volume.
You’ve been called “the most original voice in horror since Mike Flanagan.” How does that influence your approach to storytelling in Ivories?
Honestly, that’s probably the most flattering thing anyone’s ever said about me. I adore Mike Flanagan’s work… how it holds space for grief, memory, and love alongside the horror. If my writing echoes even a fraction of that emotional depth, I’m doing something right.
But with Ivories, I’m not trying to replicate anyone. My approach has always been: let the horror grow out of the people. If it doesn’t hurt, it won’t haunt. I write stories that aren’t about queerness being the tragedy, but queerness being the lens through which everything unfolds: the silence, the rage, the humor, the love, the wrongness in the walls. It is pertinent to me that I write human stories about humans that aren’t afraid to dive into the ugly, because to me: that’s what’s real. I like my ghosts with baggage and my drama with bite. If that makes me part of a new generation of horror writers, I’m honored… but mostly, I just want the audience to feel something that stays with them long after the house lights come up.
This production marks the London stage debut for the entire cast. What has the rehearsal process been like with this ensemble?
This is actually the first major production of Ivories I haven’t directed myself, which has been a huge and very welcome shift. I already had a long creative history with Dan and Matthías, we met at World Pride in Copenhagen back in 2021, but this is the first time we’ve done the play together with this full company. From the moment I first spoke to Georgie about the piece, I knew she had to be the one to direct it. She just gets the play. She’s imaginative, sharp, curious, and she has a real clarity of vision that always serves both the story and the ensemble.
Her vision is razor-sharp, but it’s also emotionally generous: she leads with curiosity and conviction, and she always centers the needs of both the story and the people telling it. As both playwright and actor, that’s meant everything. From day one, I was clear that I wanted the space to focus on Sloane fully: not as a director or multitasker, just as a character, and I’ve had nothing but support in doing that.
Ashley, Dan, and Matthías are magnetic scene partners. We trust each other, and that trust shows up in every beat. It’s been one of the most open, connected, and magnetic rehearsal rooms I’ve ever been in, and you can feel that in the version of Ivories we’re building.
What would you say to anyone thinking of booking to see Ivories?
Come for the horror, stay for the heartbreak.
Ivories is unsettling, intimate, and oddly tender… like watching a haunting unfold in someone’s living room. It’s a queer psychological thriller, but also a love story. If you’ve ever felt haunted by your past, your marriage, your mistakes, or by a house… you’ll find something in this play that gets under your skin.
And if you’re still unsure: the cast is gorgeous, the lighting is dramatic, and someone definitely cries in a hallway. What more could you want?
(I also always hear how disarmed audiences are by how deeply funny the play is. So if you’re still unsure if you’ll laugh or cry, just trust both will happen and you will feel extraordinarily thrilled by it.)
The London premiere of Ivories by Riley Elton McCarthy, directed by Georgie Rankom is at the Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London, EC1V 4NJ, 1 – 26 July, 2025.
