The Guardian 30 June 2024

What moral compromises has the Christian right had to make in order to lend its support to Donald Trump, a convicted felon? It is a question that goes through your head watching this sparky revival of Philip Ridley’s needling black comedy. How can anyone square their New Testament beliefs with all that bling, avarice and deceit.

Troubled by a biblical sense of right and wrong, Radiant Vermin is an extreme fantasy about self-styled good people justifying their immoral behaviour in the name of a consumerist god.

Jill and Ollie Swift are an expectant couple who stumble into a Faustian pact with Miss Dee, equal parts estate agent, government operative and tempter. If they sign her contract, they can get their dream home for free, each room kitted out in glossy-magazine luxury. The only cost is the loss of a few homeless people along the way. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).