Review: Mercury Fur Preview

On Friday of last week I received a mysterious and intriguing email. It was a summons to the Bandstand on the Scores to a pre-show performance from the cast of Philip Ridley’s ‘Mercury Fur’. This is a talented group pushing an extremely ambitious publicity campaign, filling the online and offline community with butterflies and riot reports, so this invitation to an interactive publicity stunt was one not to be missed.

When I arrived at the Bandstand, a boy was kicking a football about in a pair of ripped trousers and introduced himself as Naz. He had a strong South East London accent, as did the rest of the characters we were to meet on our journey through the world of Mercury Fur. Naz helped the collected audience to break into a house where, upon hearing a voice, he abandoned us and we were left with Darren. Darren was a quiet boy who, in a shocking revelation opened a cupboard door to reveal the barely conscious Party Piece before leading us up the stairs where, bursting out a door, we were met by the next character, Elliot, who ushered us into his room and gave us a talking to about the difficulties of throwing a party (not just any ordinary party). The sense of shadiness was growing by the minute as Elliot and Darren quickly moved us out of the house and along the street where we passed by a suited man, on his phone, the Duchess, singing songs under her breath and got a further glimpse into the world of Mercury Fur from the fleeting interactions between the characters. The final fascinating character that we got to meet was Lola, already dressed for a party. She shooed the boys away and talked to us about her costume making. As Lola appeared to be on a tight schedule, we were sent back down the stairs and out the door where Darren and Elliot were messing around and the promenading audience followed the boys blindly back to their house where the door was shut in our faces and we were left reeling.

The talent in this cast has already blown me away. They brought us into their world, a world far removed from St Andrews, and the butterflies have finally started to make sense. If you missed out on this, you don’t want to miss the show. Mercury Fur goes up on 28^th February and finishes on 1^st March. Get your ticket on yourunion.net now.