The Ruby Sunrise

For her 100th production with the Ensemble Theatre, Sandra Bates has chosen a curious piece about perseverance, disappointment, discovery and McCarthyism. The Ruby Sunrise starts with a simple girl’s dream of inventing television, and ends with her story being retold through that very medium.

Ensemble
The Ensemble Theatre

Thursday, 15 October 2009

For her 100th production with the Ensemble Theatre, Sandra Bates has chosen a curious piece about perseverance, disappointment, discovery and McCarthyism. The Ruby Sunrise starts with a simple girl’s dream of inventing television, and ends with her story being retold through that very medium.

It’s 1927 and our would-be inventor Ruby (Matilda Ridgway) is a teenaged runaway hiding out in her alcoholic aunt’s barn. Despite intense disapproval from Aunt Lois (Amanda Muggleton), Ruby is hell-bent on being the first to construct a viable TV. As befits a woman of her situation, she can only rely on her own grit, determination…and an impressive collection of purloined lab gear, thanks to her aunt’s lovesick boarder Henry (Jonathan Prescott). Sadly, this being Indiana in 1927, things can only end badly. Very badly.

Jump to New York, 1952, and Ruby’s story is perfect for the contraption she was so obsessed with. Script editor Lulu (a sassy Catherine McGraffin) has her own reasons for wanting to see Ruby’s story done right, but her decade has its own challenges. Capitalism and McCarthyism demand that TV toes the line in helping to bring down the Commies and sell detergent.

While the basic themes of the two stories roughly mirror each other, The Ruby Sunrise suffers from a lack of cohesion between the two eras. Playwright Rinne Groff treats her 1927 story as a straight melodrama, something that could have been written in the 1920’s, playing it straight with little attempt at commentary or engaging the audience. In the 1950’s section Groff is prepared to be more playful and knowing, creating chinks in the Fourth Wall here and there. I kept expecting to find out that the 1927 section was actually what made it onto the TV screen, or was some other form of unreliable narrative. Sadly this was not the case.

Despite the lethargy of the first 20 minutes or so, The Ruby Sunrise picks up once we’re in New York. Muggleton, who was entertaining as Aunt Lois, becomes energised as Ethel, an actress who transforms Lois from bitter alcoholic to flamboyant alcoholic. Glenn Hazeline (as writer Tad Rose) and Paul Gleeson (TV bigwig Martin Marcus) play entertainingly stereotyped 1950’s men in suits, allowing cracks to show through the bravado when the demands of blacklisting and advertising become too much. Ridgway and Prescott return as the actors playing their 1927 selves, with Hollie Andrew stealing some of the limelight as a talent-deficient and slightly crazed Monroe-esque starlet.

Despite misgivings with the opening section, The Ruby Sunrise is an entertaining period piece. Groff has fun picking the act of storytelling apart. And much of this 2005 play seems prescient, given that many of the political concerns that Groff touches on are relevant to the GFC. Not to mention the accusations of Communism/Socialism being loudly aired in American politics at the moment.

Bookings: 02 9929 0644

Until 14 November, 2009