Ruby Moon
21 July – 13 August 2022
Ad Astra Theatre, 57 Misterton St, Fortitude Valley
Directed by Susan O’Toole-Cridland and starring Gary Farmer-Trickett and Sandra Harman, Ruby Moon is a contemporary play that explores the grim mythology of the missing child in Australian folklore. Written by Matt Cameron in 2003, it combines elements of absurdism, gothic horror, black comedy, and fairy tales with the paranoia of post-9/11 suburbia as well as drawing inspiration from real-life headlines about missing children.
In Flaming Tree Grove, life appears to be picture perfect. Security and privacy are coveted and seclusion is its own reward, until the day when little Ruby Moon sets off to visit her grandmother at the end of the cul-de-sac and is never seen again.
The neighbourhood fractures into grief and suspicion in the search for answers. Ruby’s parents, Ray and Sylvie Moon, struggle to come to terms with the disappearance of their six year old daughter, and are almost ready to give up hope when a parcel containing the arm of Ruby’s doll arrives on their doorstep. Desperate for answers, they go up and down the street to re-interview their eccentric neighbours, any of whom could be responsible, including a bible-thumping elderly woman, an ex-soldier who still lives with his mother, Ruby’s creepy babysitter, and even a mad scientist. The strangest of all is “The Wizard” – a former runaway who returned home to find his parents had moved away.
Haunted by their missing child, Ray and Sylvie descend further into a nightmarish world where the boundaries between the real and imaginary become increasingly blurred. Where is Ruby, and who knows what happened to her? Did she ever exist?
For ticketing and further information, visit the Ad Astra website
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