The Beast Will Rise, A Series of Monologues by Philip Ridley, Announced

Rachel Bright is to star in the online World Premiere of Gator, the first in a series of monologues by Philip Ridley. The collection of monologues, presented here as The Beast Will Rise, is Ridley’s response to the current crisis and will be performed by members of the cast of his play The Beast of Blue Yonder, which was due to have its professional world premiere at Southwark Playhouse this week.

Gator, starring Rachel Bright, will be launched on Tramp’s Twitter and Instagram channels this Thursday as part of The Beast Will Rise. Further online world premieres from Ridley will follow each week.

Jack Silver, Artistic Director of Tramp said,  “When we postponed Beast it was devastating. Not just because of all the hard work the cast and creative team had already put in but because, like so many people in the industry, most of our cast have day jobs in things like the service industry, gyms, and teaching acting. Most of them didn’t just lose an acting job last week, they lost their day jobs too.

“I spoke to Philip to see if we could come up with ideas to help the cast and creatives financially, and also to give them something to keep their creative juices flowing, and we came up with the idea of The Beast Will Rise. The cast of the play will perform the monologues each week, which will be available to watch for free online, with the audience invited to make a donation.

“We promised people a Philip Ridley world premiere this Thursday at 7.30pm, and we’re going to give them one. It’s not the one we’d originally planned, but in a way that makes it even more exciting.  Gator is the first time any of Philip’s work has had its world premiere online and he’s written it in the past few weeks as a direct response to what’s happening in the world right now. Our incredible director for The Beast of Blue Yonder, Wiebke Green, is directing all the monologues over Skype, before the actors record them. She and Rachel have put in huge amounts of work on Gator and it’s looking incredible.

“I’d also been speaking to the team behind Anything is Possible, the show which was due to open the day before us in Southwark’s studio space and, of course, they were in the same boat. So, we decided to share any donations between the actors and key creatives of both shows.  It’s important that we show solidarity with other shows, after all we are all in this together.”

As well as Rachel Bright, the cast of The Beast of Blue Yonder includes Mirren Mack (Sex Education, The Nest), Jade Ewen (Aladdin, In the Heights), Steve Furst (Little Britain, Matilda, Made in Dagenham), Charlie Quirke (Birds of a Feather), Unique Spencer (Top Boy), Tyler Conti (Safe), Lucy Gape (Hollyoaks), Kyle Rowe, Jospeh Drake, Joseph Potter, Nat Johnson, Mike Evans, and Grace Hogg-Robinson.