The Ruffian on the Stair
★★☆☆☆ Falls short
Royal Scots Club (Venue 242): Mon 5 – Sat 10 Aug 2024
Review by Tom Ralphs
For the second of their Fringe productions, EGTG revive The Ruffian on the Stair, a little-known Joe Orton play, sixty years after it debuted as a BBC radio play.
While lacking the intricate plot twists of Orton’s better-known works, there is still a rich seam of comedy running through it, but sadly this is lost in a production that ignores the satire at the heart of the script.
Lois Williams. Screengrab from EGTG
The set, constructed by Richard Spiers works well to create the context for director Robert Wylie’s interpretation of the play. A white chaise longue and chair are adorned with Union Jack and British Bulldog cushions, immediately linking the play to the overt nationalism, patriotism and prejudice that has been rearing its ugly head in the UK over the last two weeks.
However, it is questionable whether Orton was drawing this narrow a focus in his examination of working-class England. While there is the fear of outsiders in the script it’s of a more complex and conflicted nature than the cushions would suggest.
disrupted
The furniture is in the home of Mike (played by Trevor Lord) and Joyce (played by Lois Williams). He is a Roman Catholic ex-boxer from Donegal, she is a Protestant ex-prostitute who, in the original production, came from London, but here is harder to place. Their lives are disrupted by the arrival of Wilson (Ollie Hiemann) who turns up at their bedsit when Joyce is on her own, to ask about a room advertised to rent.
Ollie Hiemann and Lois Williams. Screengrab from EGTG
Wilson claims a heritage that stretches to the Mediterranean and Ireland. Mike’s initial reaction to him, and to Joyce’s criticisms of him is influenced by the apparent link to his home country, not to any British values, but the reductive approach to the script means that the nuances of this aren’t really explored in the production.
As the plot develops it becomes clear that Wilson has a strong connection to a man called Frank whose death as a result of being hit by a van. It also becomes clear that Mike and Joyce are also in some way connected to the dead man and to Wilson. The main questions and reveals are all around how they are connected and what Mike and Joyce really know about each other’s lives.
pace
The pace in the scenes between Mike and Joyce is too slow. What energy there is, in the delivery of their lines, is lost in lengthy pauses that wouldn’t be out of place in a Pinter production. This is a script that relies on fast instinctive exchanges to expose and caricature the unthinking and slightly ridiculous attitudes of the people saying them.
Hiemann works hard to inject tension and menace into his characterisation of Wilson and for the most part succeeds in this, but there is little for him to feed off.
Ollie Hiemann and Trevor Lord. Screengrab from EGTG
The slow pace and failure to make the most of the humour in much of the script mean that when he sidles up to Mike for a moment that should really mark a gear and tone shift in the play – exposing further prejudices and fears – it’s impossible to do this. There is nothing before it that the scene can act as a real counterpoint to, and there is no lighter mood that any of the characters can try and return to afterwards.
Orton wrote characters that were exaggerations in their attitudes, picking up the quirks of personalities and making them caricatures of what he saw as outdated values. He matched them up with characters that were frighteningly real outsiders taking delight in disturbing convention. In this way he created farces that were also social commentaries and shots across the boughs of normality.
By submerging and underplaying the farcical elements of the play, Wylie’s direction leaves us with a production that doesn’t convince as either a comedy or a drama.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval)
The Royal Scots Club (The Hepburn Suite), 29-31 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE (Venue 241)
Monday 5 – Saturday 10 August 2024
Daily at 9pm.
Tickets and details: Book here
Website: https://theegtg.com/
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ENDS
