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It''s at times like this I''m inspired by The Stupendous Santini. He toured the mid-West during the 1930s, entertaining farmers affected by the Dust Bowl. No one would have remembered him were in not for the fact that during his most famous trick - sword swallowing - he accidentally punctured a lung and died on the spot. He became a legend. Donny has committed an act that shocked everyone. Tabloids called him The Most Hated Boy Alive. But Donny doesn''t want forgiveness. All Donny wants is . . . his own television show. Written by internationally acclaimed writer Philip Ridley, Tonight With Donny Stixx is the companion piece to Ridley''s 2013 Fringe First-winner Dark Vanilla Jungle , and received its premiere at the Soho Theatre, London, on 27 July 2015 before premiering at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
About the author
Philip Ridley was born and grew up in the East End of London. He studied painting at St Martin's School of Art. He has written many highly regarded and hugely influential stage plays: the seminal
The Pitchfork Disney (now published as a Methuen Modern Classic
),
The Fastest Clock in the Universe (winner of a Time Out Award, the Critics' Circle Award for Most Promising Playwright,
and the Meyer-Whitworth Prize
),
Ghost from a Perfect Place,
Vincent River (nominated for the London Festival Fringe Best Play Award),
the highly controversial
Mercury Fur,
Leaves of Glass, Piranha Heights (nominated for the WhatsOnStage Mobius Award for Best Off West End Production)
, Tender Napalm (nominated for the London Fringe Best Play Award),
Shivered (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play
Award),
Dark Vanilla Jungle (winner of an Edinburgh Festival Fringe First Award),
Radiant Vermin (now
published as a Methuen Modern Classic
),
Tonight With Donny Stixx, Karagula (nominated for the OffWestEnd Best New Play
Award),
The Beast of Blue Yonder,
The Poltergeist (winner of the OffWestEnd OnComm Award for Best Live Streamed Play) and
Tarantula; plus several plays for young people
(collectively known as
The Storyteller Sequence)
: Karamazoo, Fairytaleheart, Moonfleece (named as one of the 50 Best Works About Cultural Diversity by the National Centre for Children's Books), the seminal
Sparkleshark (the first of the Connections Festival plays - all written for young people - to be staged professionally by the National Theatre), and
Brokenville; also,
Feathers in the Snow (shortlisted for the Brian Way Best Play Award).
