Ruckus – Southwark Playhouse, London

Writer: Jenna Fincken

Director: Georgia Green

Writer and performer Jenna Fincken gives a breathtaking performance in this devastating and moving solo show exposing the horrors of coercive control in relationships.

Fincken’s debut play, Ruckus, which gained acclaim at the Edinburgh Festival, centres around Lou, a primary school teacher whose life changes after meeting the seemingly charming Ryan. What follows, an hour long piece, is a brutal look at how abuse in a relationship gradually consumes it. A countdown of 824 days looms large over the production, creating an ominous and almost inevitable sense of what the piece’s conclusion might be. This production comes with its own self care guide, such is the nature of the work, and Fincken’s script rightly does not shy away from the true nature of such relationships.

Fincken’s depiction of Lou draws upon real life testimonies of those in such relationships, with the script capturing the harrowing ease of how such control can develop. In the role, Fincken’s delivery is, at times, mesmerising. Fincken also multi-roles in the piece, switching between Lou and a plethora of characters who all appear at different stages of Lou’s life. This is a nice touch, showcasing how the relationships with peers is also impacted for victims in such situations, with their pleas to Lou to leave abuser Ryan becoming ever more desperate.

This is a one woman show, but the decision to use a voice-over for Ryan is an interesting one. The voice over enables him to cast his shadow over the piece, as he does Lou’s life, despite being invisible. This, perhaps, is a subtle echo to the hidden nature of such abuse, where those like Ryan hide in plain sight. This then, despite a few awkward moments, mostly works, impacted only a few times where the timing of the recording feels a little off.

The production’s simple set design, by Miranda Keeble, consists of a raised platform and a selection of curtains around the edge, a nod to one of the first elements of control Ryan establishes. It is a design which thrusts Lou into the spotlight and gives Fincken, and her script, the attention it deserves. There are a few times where the curtains do obliterate text messages which are illegible in their projection, but this rarely detracts from the piece.

Lou screams at us at the end “did you see it”, demanding the audience to confront the reality of such abuse and it, like this production, is unmissable. This show, with its plethora of trigger warnings, is a gut-wrenching eye-opener that subverts the typical abuse storyline to look at coercive control and its subtle, yet awful, impacts. Ruckus is Fincken’s debut play and, if this devastating piece is anything to go by, she has a long and successful writing career ahead.

Runs until 29 October 2022