Piranha Heights

Piranha Heights
Promotional artwork for the play, created by Philip Ridley
Written by	Philip Ridley
Characters	Alan (Male, aged 37) Terry (Male, aged 42) Lilly (Female, aged 15) Medic (Male, Aged 16) Garth (Male, aged 15)
Date premiered	15 May 2008
Place premiered	Soho Theatre, London
Original language	English
Genre	In-yer-face theatre, Black Comedy, Farce
Setting	"The top-floor flat of a tower block in the East End of London."

Alan (Male, aged 37)

Terry (Male, aged 42)

Lilly (Female, aged 15)

Medic (Male, Aged 16)

Piranha Heights is a one act play by Philip Ridley. It is Ridley's seventh stage play for adults and premiered at the Soho Theatre, London on May 15 2008. The production was the second collaboration between Ridley and Soho Theatre Artistic Director Lisa Goldman whom Ridley dedicated the play to in his preface of the published text. The play also featured Luke Treadaway in one of his earliest professional stage credits, who along with actor John Macmillan was filmed for Ridley's 2009 horror film Heartless, during the play's original run.

The play is the third and final instalment in Ridley's unofficially titled "Brothers Trilogy", having been preceded by Mercury Fur and Leaves of Glass.

The play takes place on Mother’s Day where Alan is in his mother’s flat. Unexpectedly his brother Terry turns up, having been missing since after their Mother’s death several weeks before.

Terry has brought along with him a fifteen-year-old girl called Lily who lives in a squat below the flat. She wears a hijab with niqab, speaks in an unusual mix of English and an unknown Middle-Eastern language and also claims to have endured many horrors as a victim of an Islamic war in an unspecified country.

Tension mounts while the anger builds between the two brothers as they argue over who should inherit the flat, as well as argue their conflicting memories of their deceased mother.

Eventually Lilly’s partner The Medic arrives. He is a sixteen-year-old boy who frequently swings from being overly grateful to extremely angry. He along with Lilly look after a plastic baby doll called Bubba which they treat as if it is their own child.

Also showing up at the flat unexpectedly is Alan’s 15-year-old son Garth, who for years has hidden his true psychotic personality, enjoying to inflict cruelty onto others under the influence of his imaginary friend called Mr Green.

Taking place in real-time and spanning approximately ninety minutes in length, chaos ensues in the flat as the characters go to extreme lengths to achieve their aims.

Premiere

15 May 2008 at the Soho Theatre, London. Directed by Lisa Goldman.