Review: RUN THE BEAST DOWN, Finborough Theatre

I recall my father saying in astonishment 30 or so years ago - "I've just seen a fox!" Urban foxes were rare sights in the 80s, but now, especially at night, one can often see two or three in a single road, scouring bins and screeching, scavenging and scrawny. I understand that they will breed - more screeching - until the local environment can sustain no more, which is why they are all rake thin and on the edge of starvation. Death, if not under the wheels of a car, from lack of food, is never far away for a fox.

It's all - at least I think it is - a metaphor for life in the city and life in The City in Titas Halder's strange one man play, Run The Beast Down, a monologue with music. Ben Aldridge is Charlie, a trader who loses his job when one of his colleagues goes rogue and incurs huge losses. His girlfriend has walked out on him and he's having the same trouble sleeping he has endured since an childhood encounter with a fox in the woods. Meanwhile, civil society is beginning to disintegrate, as the anarchy that was held back in 2008's financial crash, breaks through.

It's tricky to know what to make of it all. How much is in Charlie's imagination, as his grip on reality wavers (there's a touch of Equus about that, with foxes instead of horses)? Are the foxes really the children running wild on his Finsbury Park estate, feral, as he describes them? Or are the foxes his trader buddies, roaming and raiding the computerised world of finance, ripping the hearts out of companies and distant communities at the press of a button? There's a little of The Bonfire of the Vanities in those scenes.

Though Anthony Lambie's set, with its vertical strip lights suggesting rural trees and urban railings, glowing orange when the King of the Foxes looms in Charlie's mind, is never less than interesting to look at and Chris Bartholomew's DJing and sound design is beautifully integrated with the action, at 90 minutes all-through, it's a tough ask. Aldridge is a compelling actor, both charismatic and repellent as required, but it's still one man talking in a small space for an hour and a half.

This is Halder's first play and it's an encouraging debut. There are spells of virtuoso writing, the psychological and social dystopia suggesting some of JG Ballard's work. But it's not as theatrical as it might be and needs more variation in tone if it is to engage the audience fully. I was left thinking of The The's mid 80s' inner city lament / warning "Heartland" and I'm sure that Halder's ambition goes well beyond the discourse of the pop video - and I'm sure that he will realise that potential in the future.

Run The Beast Down continues at the Finborough Theatre until 25 February.

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