Despite the play being credited as a major work for instigating in-yer-face theatre, Ridley has spoken about how he feels that "The Pitchfork Disney" (along with his other plays in the so-called “East End Gothic Trilogy”) were produced before in-yer-face theatre happened: “I had done my first three plays… by 1994 and that’s the year that most people say the ‘in your face’ thing started. All those seeds were laid before that, but it didn't feel that I was doing that and no one said I was doing that until many years after the event.” “When in-yer-face was happening I was writing plays for young people.”