THEATRE: RUBY MOON
What would you do if your daughter set off down the street and never came back? How would you cope? Who would you blame – the neighbours, the police, your spouse, yourself? And when would you let go and accept that she was gone? These are the questions posed by Matt Cameron in his new play Ruby Moon. A veneer of happy suburbia is quickly stripped back and we are plunged into a who-dunnit mystery, watching a young couple (Brynn Loosemore and Sarah Aubrey) desperately conduct their own inquest after the disappearance of their daughter Ruby – knocking on door after door as cracks in their sanity get wider and wider. Doors are a central theme of this play. What did the residents of Flaming Tree Grove see from behind their doors on the day Ruby disappeared? Did Ruby step through one of them that fateful day, never to come out again? Masterfully, if a little too melodramatically, Loosemore and Aubrey also play the array of dysfunctional characters that are the neighbours. Each one is driven by their own agenda. Each one is bubbling with resentment. Each one is a suspect. The decision by director Jessica Tuckwell to only cast two actors is clever as well as economical – in the end, this play is only about two people who must ultimately deal with burden of their loss and their emotional demise.
Until Dec 12, Newtown Theatre, cnr King St and Bray St, Newtown, $18-27, newtowntheatre.com.au
