Brighton Fringe 2025

With Ruby and I

WLTM Productions

Genre: Dark Comedy, Drama, Fringe Theatre

Venue: The Lantern Theatre. 77 St James's Street Brighton BN2 1PA

Festival: Brighton Fringe

Low Down

Review

As in all good theatre, the flat was minimally sketched in – by Christine Kempell’s very confident direction – just a sofa and an armchair, and a small table sitting on a rather threadbare carpet.   It’s “so high up you could kiss the sky”, and Lexi Pickett as Ruby, with Rach Mullock as Mags, brought the place to life so vividly that I could almost see the tower block opposite through the window frame (just the frame) on the set’s back wall.

There’s three of them, actually.   Mag’s mum Queenie has ‘downsized’, fairly recently it seems, and Mags has her ashes in a little urn.   She’s got Queenie’s onesie draped over the chair, under the urn, so at first glance it looks if the old girl is still sitting there.

‘Withnail and I’ was a very black comedy, and this piece of writing by Corrina O’Beirne is right up there with it, for grossness.   Ruby insists that she and Mags are “like twins” – and as the pair of them don’t want Mags’s mum to be lost to them, they dunk some of her ashes into their mugs of tea, and then they gulp it down.   “She’ll be with us forever …”     (One audience member let out an involuntary “Oh God!” when this happened, which got an extra laugh)

A confession  –  that audience member was … me.

But ‘With Ruby and I’ isn’t actually a comedy; although it’s got some very funny lines.  It’s about love, and the things we do for love … and how love can turn into obsession.   Mags and Ruby’s flat might be untidy, but for them it’s the Garden of Eden.  They’re a couple, bosom buddies, complete with sex.   (Talking of which – I’d never heard a vulva described as a ‘Venus Fly-trap’ before.  Actually, they might have said ‘Penis Fly-trap’, but we got the reference …)

But every Eden has its Serpent.   In this case it’s Tony, just returned from deployment in some warzone.    Tony’s obviously suffering from some form of PTSD, and when he talks to Mags, who he’s obviously known as a friend for a long time –

hewantstotellMagsthathelovesherandwouldliketohavearelationshipwithherandtakecareofherbuthe  knowsthathe’sfuckedupfromallthethingsthathe’sdoneandseenandallthegoodbuddieswhoaredeadnow andit’sdoinghisheadin.

Phew!   Sam Cartwright’s tall, but he hunched over a bit as he delivered a monologue that went on for almost half a minute.  He’d brought flowers, too; and Mags started to warm towards the idea of a relationship …

Which doesn’t please Ruby AT ALL !

She feels betrayed.  This man is trying to take her lover away from her, so Ruby uses every possible strategy to undermine Tony.  She starts by defining the man as a loser – a nobody with no prospects, who’s going to be SO dull as a partner.  She’s desperate to hold on to the woman she loves – and needs, because Ruby is pretty damaged herself.     So she goes further.

Much further.   The things we do for love, Eh?

I won’t spoil the ending for you, except to remind you that every Eden ends in a Fall. 

But before we got there – we were treated to an hour of sparky dialogue from three amazingly talented actors.   It wasn’t just the writing – Sam Cartwright had to play ‘damaged and anguished’ and did it very believably – but it was Rach Mullock and Lexi Pickett who brought Mags and Ruby to life physically, as well as just in words.  The warmth of their relationship was made obvious – hugging and kissing, bumping and grinding, slurping booze and popping pills; they dominated every inch of The Lantern’s stage.   

Two women in thrall to the joys of LIFE – and later to the bitter taste of BETRAYAL.

This was acting of the highest quality – so high that it didn’t seem like acting at all – we’d been watching real people through that ‘fourth wall’.    At the end, it received a very well-deserved standing ovation.

Try to catch it, if you possibly can.  

Published May 23, 2025May 23, 2025 by Strat Mastoris