Philip Ridley’s 1992 play The Fastest Clock in the Universe is revived by Cellar Door Theatre at the New Wimbledon Theatre’s Studio. Like its immediate predecessor, The Pitchfork Disney, it was received with some alarm because of its subject matter, and it is the second play in the unofficial “East End Gothic Trilogy” (followed by Ghost in a Perfect Place).
Cougar Glass (Frederick Russell) and Captain Tock (Brian Aris) live above an abandoned fur factory, now just full of birds – echoed by the set design here, which includes avian ornaments and pictures. Cougar holds his 19th birthday party each year, luring in a new victim for his twisted pleasure. The Captain goes along with the pretence, tied as he is to this vain and predatory man.
This year, the chosen victim is Foxtrot Darling (Kim Whatmore), a 15-year-old schoolboy whom Cougar befriended in the hospital, connecting over a fabricated story of shared grief. The first act is a difficult one: watching the detritus of a relationship between two men with a love-hate, sub-Dom dynamic. with the promise of “larks” as a reward. By the second act, the focus shifts, and Cougar is completely overshadowed, his preening personality submerged.
There are two female characters in the play, too. The streetwise Sherbet Gravel (Naomi Preston-Law) and the ancient landlady Cheetah Bee (Karen Holley). Ridley has explained the use of nicknames to populate these characters – each hiding behind an identity that is almost theirs, but not quite. Cougar, despite the more modern meaning of an older woman who preys on younger men, is probably not intended that way. The Cougar of The Fastest Clock in the Universe is more Dorian Gray or Orton’s Mr Sloane, a man who exudes vanity and fluid sexuality.
Ridley has crafted a shocking and sadistic play, with a sharp, earthy script twisted into psychological and physiological references. The first act is mainly a two-hander between Cougar and the Captain (“f–k the milk of human kindness and welcome to the abbatoir”). Director Brittany Rex ramps up the tension and revels in the uneasy undertones of the plot and the underlying suggestion of torture, murder, and death. Russell’s Cougar strikes a slightly false note at times, but Preston-Law’s Sherbet offers a strong diversion.
By act two, The Fastest Clock in the Universe descends into a violent confrontation as the lights fizz and flicker. It leads to a conclusion straight from a horror film, a loud, bloody, and confusing mess which is closely choreographed and extremely effective. It’s over the top, but deliberately so. Things have changed – then they haven’t.”Black diamonds in red meat … the cruelty of what I saw that day … was beautiful.” It’s a grim realisation that we have been left squirming on our hooks.
Three and a half stars.
The Fastest Clock in the Universe was at New Wimbledon Theatre Studio until 9 May.
My thanks to Brittany Rex for sending through a recording of the play so I could watch the second act and file this review.
Photo credits: Amy Wicks Young, Lidia Crisafulli