This review was originally written for The Reviews Hub: https://www.thereviewshub.com/the-pitchfork-disney-kings-head-theatre-london/

For Haley and Presley, the outside world with its stark brutality is an incomprehensible terror. Six bolts on the door should be enough to keep the outside from coming in, but when Presley makes one risky decision too many, terrors take hold in this disturbing and unsettling revival of Philip Ridley’s The Pitchfork Disney.

Aside from frantic trips to the shops, the isolated adult siblings spend their days in their dilapidated childhood home, intoxicated by chocolate and heavy sleep medication. But once an inquisitive Presley invites the attractive yet sinister Cosmo into their home, the lives of the siblings, and their relationship face increasing danger. What follows is a 90-minute rapid-fire romp, particularly between Presley and Cosmo in a terrifying display of power, initially by the latter, with increasingly deranged requests and dreams brimming to the surface.

As the fraught Presley, Ned Costello’s energetic delivery effectively captures the character’s vulnerabilities. Presley’s role as a doting brother is continuously tested, but regardless of the actions that unfold, Costello is quick to let the defensive brother characteristic rise quickly. Indeed, Costello’s strong chemistry with his onstage sister Haley, the exceptional Elizabeth Connick, rapidly establishes their close bond but also tapers this with a degree of awkwardness that arouses in the audience a curiosity and unease about their situation.  Connick, who, like Costello, truly thrives when delivering one of the play’s many lengthy, chaotic monologues, is electric, and it is just a shame that Haley spends much of the play asleep.

As the deeply unsettling Cosmo, William Robinson’s sudden arrival bursts into the quiet siblings’ household with urgent and disgusting fury. Cosmo, depending on his physical beauty, exudes confidence, but Robinson does well to blend this arrogance with a total sense of menace, escalating the play’s tension as well as Presley and the unconscious Haley’s jeopardy. Cosmo is, though, a little too heavy on the shouting, which is overbearing in the theatre’s neat space, but the revulsion that Robinson’s portrayal of Cosmo slickly evokes is effective.

What makes Ridley’s work so striking is its blending of the horrifying with the intriguing. While the play is renowned for its provocative scenes, it is much more than this. Cosmo’s money-making trick to eat anything rightly earns gasps, as does the rubber-clad Pitchfork’s (Matt Yulish) arrival. But these larger-scale shock moments are a deft contrast to the bleak, dark imagery crafted in Presley and Haley’s numerous monologues and interactions, reiterating that at the heart of the chaos are two terrified adults who have never grown up, longing for parents who will never return, yet their demises are left not fully explained.

The pursuit of what is real, what is true, what is safe, and what is scary runs vividly through this piece, resulting in a deeply unsettling and impactful watch. With a long list of content warnings, The Pitchfork Disney categorically is not for the fainthearted. While this production initially does well, perhaps too well, to tap into the piece’s humorous absurdity, it is in the unflinchingly uncomfortable final 20 minutes that it leaves a lasting impression.