SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Jan. 2, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — If you’re looking for some progressive theater with a social conscience this new year, head to Salt Lake Acting Company for the limited run of “Radiant Vermin” by British playwright Philip Ridley.
SLAC, in collaboration with Flying Bobcat Theatrical Laboratory, is presenting the show in its Chapel Theater from Jan. 11 to Jan. 14. The piece is the inaugural work of SLAC’s new Making Space for Artists program. Through this initiative, artists are given access to SLAC’s historic building, the use of two theater spaces, technical equipment, and ticketing services.
Originally produced as a University of Utah senior project in the Actor Training Program, “Radiant Vermin” aims to raise awareness of Salt Lake City’s growing unsheltered crisis and suggest ways audiences can help. The play tells the story of Ollie and Jill, a young expecting couple in suburban London who are offered a spacious but dilapidated house by a mysterious stranger, and prompts the question: How far would you go to get your dream home? A wickedly comic satire about a couple offered a “too good to be true” way onto the property ladder, this outrageous pitch-black comedy thriller is a meditation on how far we will go to satisfy — and justify — materialistic greed.
The play’s relevance is emphasized by a 10% increase in newly unhoused individuals in fiscal 2022, as per data from the Utah Office of Homeless Services. The production company has pledged to donate a portion of ticket sales to The Inn Between, which provides hospice care to the unsheltered in Salt Lake City, and will also accept in-kind donations for the 4th Street Clinic.
The show, which is directed by Camden Barrett, features Mack Barr, Sophie White, Caro Ciet, and Griz Siebeneck. White has already graduated from the ATP, along with Barr. Ciet, Siebeneck and Barrett are currently seniors in the program. We spoke with director Barrett and White, who plays Jill.
The show was first staged in Bristol, England, then opened in London’s West End in 2015, and was staged in New York the following year as part of the Brits Off Broadway Festival, but White explained it hasn’t been produced in Utah until now.
“From what I found, it just kind of hasn’t made the jump to the states like it should. It’s fantastic,” she said. “And Phil really has done some stuff before; his famous one is ‘Mercury Fur;’ that’s the one people seem to know from him. But he’s a well established playwright. And funnily enough, it was his first comedy. He usually writes very dramatic, very scary, very political stuff. But it’s really funny, and then it just has that lovely undertone built into it.”
Barrett, who grew up in the American Fork area, described how they got involved with the project and why they wanted to direct.
“Sophie and I are both of the Actor Training Program at the University of Utah,” they said. “Sophie is a year ahead of me. I graduate this coming spring, so we were both adamant about collaborating on their joint senior project with Mack before they both graduated. It was such a remarkable process the first time around. Making theater with your friends is such a joy because there is an innate shared language in the ‘rehearsal room,’ or we have unanimously agreed to use the term ‘playground’ to describe the space we gather and explore together.
“‘Radiant Vermin’ is such a challenging and exciting play because it asks us to imagine, which I feel is a very risky tool. We are virtually playing ‘house’ together, like I did with my younger siblings. What is so thrilling about this process is how we create the conditions for an audience to imagine with us. Imagination is a political tool that the playwright, Philip Ridley, uses very intentionally — phrases such as The American Dream, Manifest Destiny, Dream Homes — Jill and Ollie seek to persuade the audience to agree with their actions. This play is a full vaudeville act; comic acts, singing, magicians, which has its own distressing roots in capitalism, colonialism, and white supremacy. The guise of imagination and ‘success.’ There is a significant risk involved that comes at a corporal cost.”
White also described how the group selected the show.
“It came together in preparation for a senior capstone project,” she said. “So kind of our big thing at the end; it’s whatever we want to do. There were students who would do like a Dungeons and Dragons game because that’s how they felt that they could show off their particular acting style and what they learned writing-wise. And so it was all up to everybody on what we wanted to choose. And it’s something that we look at for a couple of years before that, too. We’re always kind of keeping an eye out for something; you can do really truly anything. There was somebody who did a rap, and that was like a 10 minute rap that she knew, memorized, wrote; that’s very cool. I mean, I’m ambitious; my roommate calls it the ‘not be able to leave well enough alone’ gene. When I was preparing, I was like, the opportunity to have a performance and have an audience; I want to do something big, I want to do something I’m really excited about, that’s saying something that I think this community cares about outside of just the acting and showing off what skill sets I think I’ve gained. Because I mean, there’s plenty with the dialect work and that’s really quite fun. It’s pretty physical as well; there’s really no set at all. There’s a sheet and me and Mack and our other two co-actors coming in and out. It was just a really cool opportunity to say, well, this show is really talking about something that matters to us. People need to; we just need to talk about it. We need to do something. It’s not OK. And people are dying. And why is it so easy for us to forget?”
White told us more about her character, Jill.
“She and Ollie are really trying to establish themselves,” she said. “It’s like the same thing that myself and a lot of other people are dealing with in our generation of like, we can only dream of ever living in a house for the most part. And so they’re kind of in that stage of life. But Jill herself is a very A type. She’s very particular; she kind of, I think, wears the pants in the relationship. She’s a bit bossy; I say it with love. And everything needs to be perfect for their baby. And that’s a huge thing for them is that like, if this goes wrong, our baby can turn into a horrible person, and what will his life be like, and we need to have this for our baby, and we need to have that for a baby and, you know, that kind of common thing that we we tend to hide behind the children sometimes. And she’s kind of… the words that we used the other day in rehearsal, she’s a devouring mother. And I was like, oh, I love that.”
Though the play was written about the British unsheltered crisis, White said it also applies to the dire situation here in Utah.
“I think my character in particular really speaks to me, and what previous ignorances I had; I grew up in the Mormon church and I wasn’t very aware of things outside of my own bubble, which is, you know, common,” she said. “I grew up in Utah in the Cottonwood Heights area. But yeah, so there’s a couple of things that pop into my mind. First of all, the concept of the play is, you know, to renovate your house. It’s a dark comedy. It’s kind of ‘Arsenic and Old Lace’ style; you don’t think it’s funny when you explain the plot, but it really is when you’re there in it. And so basically, there’s one day when they’re in this new house that they’ve been given the keys to by this mysterious woman named Miss Dee, and one day when there’s a break in, because they’re in a not-so-great neighborhood that’s trying to be revitalized, which is the whole concept of this housing program that they’ve got going on. There’s a break in, the husband struggles with the shooter, and he accidentally, the man hits his head, and he passes away. And so when they’re freaking out about what to do, there’s a radiant light from their kitchen. They think it’s the police and they’re trying to decide what to do, and when they open the door, the body is gone and the blood is gone and their kitchen has been remodeled. Perfect, magical kitchen, self-replenishing fridge that has food when you take it out, it’s back again.”
She added: “And there’s working water and electricity in this house that doesn’t have it. So that whole idea is where a lot of the satire pulls in and it’s it’s very much similar to the way… the Road Home has a lovely thing on their website about the history of where the homelessness crisis has come from, from their view, and it’s just the way that, in the same process of gentrification, we took out all of this housing that was affordable that people had the opportunity to live in; it wasn’t nice, but it was affordable. And then we replaced it with these expensive, expensive apartment buildings and business buildings and and then, you know, this housing; nobody had anywhere to go. And that’s kind of where it started. And so this idea of literally stepping on the backs of our homeless population to get our house is very prevalent.”
Barrett also talked more about the audience interaction part of the show.
“Jill and Ollie want to tell you about how they procured the home of their dreams,” they said. “Jill and Ollie speak directly to the audience. What they describe and re-experience has already happened. It is in the past. Their task is to bring it back into the present; to share their journey with you. Jill and Ollie hold the audience complicit in their actions without reprieve. Jill, in particular, is unrelenting. There is a lot of finger-pointing and high walls of defense constructed in real time. I love theater so much because we are all in communion with each other. Particularly in comedy. What can we do to provoke, entertain, tickle, or seduce someone to the point of laughter? Laughter is such an electrifying response to receive. How do we invite people to listen? In ‘Radiant Vermin,’ we are immediately tethered by their implication of us in their actions that they re-imagine with us.”
White told us more about some of the philanthropic goals that are in place for the run at SLAC.
“That was really important to us in the original production; we had pamphlets that we gave out, encouraging people to donate and volunteer as well as accepting donations for those who are interested,” she said. “And we’re continuing to do that and further it because without that, it’s a spectacle that seems to abuse the violence of the situation, but not really care about, OK, what’s the next step? There’s a lovely moment at the end of the play, where Miss Dee says to the audience, like, ‘Oh, they think that I brought you here so that you can talk to them about whether or not they’re good people. No, that’s not the case. I brought you here so that I can offer you a house.’ And we thought that would be a wonderful time for us to give out these contracts that appear to be a contract you’re going to sign with Miss Dee, but they’re informational pamphlets that can send you to different websites and different areas. And then outside of that, in the lobby, we’re going to have places for people to scan QR codes to go to The Inn Between help them raise money for a van to transport their patients, as well as collecting in-kind donations that are winter kits are that people need right now to survive the conditions that they’re in, as well as just the cleanliness, hygiene products, other things that they always need.”
White, who currently works in marketing and communications for Pioneer Theatre Company and is intending moving to Chicago this year to pursue theater, added of the cast: “Also what’s also very cool thing I’ll share too, is that I use she/they pronouns, but aside from myself, every other person in the cast is non-binary. And so that angle is also just really exciting.”
Barrett also talked about why the show, which is aimed at ages 12 and up, is so crucial right now.
“It is also a call to action for ourselves and our community,” they said. “Last year, at least 159 unhoused Utahns died: likely a significant undercount, as Paigthen Harkins reported in The Salt Lake Tribune last December. It’s horrific. People without shelter are exposed to the elements, exacerbated by a warming climate. People are vulnerable to police crackdowns prescribed by the mayor. So much is out of our control. What we can do is invite people to donate, share time in a community space, and leave the theater with another perspective. All are invited to join us.”
Barrett added: “I wanted to direct something dangerous, with the hope that outside of our playground, those who will gather with us will question their own biases and prejudices that systems have enforced all of our lives. There is a significant human cost to how those in power and those with assets choose to use their power. Unfortunately, it seems most often the motivations of greed, vanity, and character preservation prevail in the decision-making rooms. The play asks the question, ‘How far are we willing to go for our own benefit?’ Theater is a persuasive medium. The question I hope will follow me throughout my life is, ‘How do I use theater to influence change-making and system reform?'”
For more information about “Radiant Vermin,” and for tickets, click here.
