Review: RUCKUS, Southwark Playhouse

"I don't think I will ever meet someone who loves me as much as Ryan loves me and I don't think I'll ever meet someone who hates me as much as Ryan hates me" Louise says as her story is winding up. She is single, in her late twenties,and a teacher at a primary school. Ruckus is the classic cautionary tale. Jenna Fincken writes and performs another meet-cute gone bad. She relives her personal hell over and over again, from the moment she laid eyes on Ryan to the fateful death of her relationship.

Fincken's script is laden with the formulaic clichés of works exploring abuse, but perhaps that's the point: red flags are just flags when you're wearing rose-tinted glasses. She leads her audiences through the first warning signals - which we pick up and she doesn't - and their new home. Her friends become comical shadows complete with silly voices. It's meant to lighten up the situation, but it swiftly turns into an overdone trope.

The moments of brilliance in the piece are, unfortunately, overshadowed by its nature and the current commodification of trauma portrayals. We rapidly understand what's going on, but there's litte appeal and no hook. We keep watching because we want to know how wrong it will go and how hurt she'll be - which is alarmingly sadistic.

As he convinces her to move in with her in a house by the sea and seizes her finances, Ryan also locks her inside and confiscates her mobile phone. His controlling, gaslighting, disturbing behaviour involves twisted games on his behalf. Fincken is excellent at slipping in seemingly innocent details that are actually horrific manifestations of domestic violence.

She maintains he never laid a hand on her, that's until he did. Her text is colloquial and narratively precise, but doesn't offer a new perspective or a different take on the delicate subject. Georgia Green directs her on a carpeted square backed by white sheer curtains designed by Miranda Keeble. A small platform allows her to add movement to an otherwise potentially immobile show and time is regularly marked, taking over the scene and startling Lou.

The theme is sensitive and the writer-performer approaches it with the necessary caution. As it is, Ruckus is an alright play, but adds nothing to the conversation. It presents a legitimate, exceptionally realistic scenario and delivers it with lighthearted humour that turns dark in the right places. "I'm pretty selfish. I never thought I'd be [a statistic]" Finchen says at the end. At a point where the stats are at a frightening one-in-three-women, it remains an urgent matter, but this production is nothing to write home about.

Ruckus runs at Southwark Playhouse until 29 October.

Photo Credit: Ali Wright

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