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Delicates and Smoke by Rebecca Russell
THIS solid, thoughtful and uncomfortable double bill of monologues comes from a writer to watch. Scot Rebecca Russell has a morbid fascination with buried obsessions and psychoses. She has a deft touch and her pieces weave themselves into tight conclusions, which roll uncomfortably with double meaning.
Smoke is the tale of coolly murderous fire-fighter Greg, torn between ranting at the public’s lack of health and safety awareness and using his specialised knowledge to wreak revenge on his wrongers.
Delicates, in which Russell also stars, whirls along like a danse macabre on a Glasgow scheme.
Put-upon housewife Moira takes in washing, snobbily comments on the quality of the smalls she is laundering and frets over the diminishing health of her three children. Using as a touchstone the highly controversial condition of Munchausen’s Syndrome By Proxy – in which parents are said to harm their children to get medical attention for themselves – Russell peels away Moira’s self-righteous layers to reveal a rotten core. “There’s nothing like a mothers love,” Moira intones. Let’s just hope all mothers love ain’t like hers.
James Mullighan
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