Ruckus: an ominous feel to one-woman drama about coercive behaviour
Ruckus at the North Wall Arts Centre Oxford on Tuesday, February 20, and Wednesday, February 21
Review by JON LEWIS
THERE’S an ominous feeling throughout Jenna Fincken’s one-woman hour-long drama Ruckus, about coercive behaviour.
A screen projects a rundown from 824 days to go and as time progresses the countdown, sometimes in hours, mostly in days, heads towards a reckoning. A doomy soundtrack heightens the uncertainty, creating a nail-biting excitement.
Fincken plays the central character, Lou, a 28 year-old primary school teacher who is talking to the audience knowing that we’re present.
She also plays other characters who interact with Lou, notably her best friend Jess, who is getting married, and their friend Whiny Briony.
Lou’s a lively woman, but failing to get a deputy headship. She meets the charming Ryan who works in logistics for a homeless charity and who asks for her phone number. She gives him a false number only to discover Jess gave him her real number. They meet for dinner.
Ryan, whom the audience hears as a voiceover, makes clear his dislike of Lou’s smoking, but they find a connection and he becomes her boyfriend.
When a deputy headship becomes available in Newquay they move into a new house. Discussions over curtains and other items for the house suggest Ryan has a liking for order and process.
Ryan expects shepherd’s pie every Wednesday. A game hiding toy farm animals around the house becomes a ‘fun’ way to control Lou’s daily activities.
The mood darkens as Ryan’s criticisms of Lou, couched as concern for her wellbeing, increase. She visits the dentist to correct her ‘bad’ breath.
Jess continually advises Lou to end the relationship, but when Lou agrees to leave Ryan he threatens self-harm.
While Lou chatters about one of her pupils and his mother finding safety in a refuge, she fails to register the danger to her own life. As disaster strikes with several hundred days to go, she asks the audience whether we have seen it. And then we loop back to the beginning of the play and there’s the beginning to another telling of Lou’s story.
Superbly acted and presented, the standing ovation for Fincken’s engrossing performance demonstrates the relatability of her play.
