Ruby Moon
Matt Cameron
Scene Analysis
The Setting
As always with live theatre, we are introduced to the play by the setting. Cameron describes his vision for
the setting, which he specifies as being “timeless and placeless”, a convention of the theatre of the
absurd. However, the setting, despite the temporal and geographical ambiguity, is certainly a suburban
home. A “blood-red velvet curtain” accompanies antique furniture and skeletal trees and a full moon
provide a gothic atmosphere. Although this is a vision of suburbia, it is evidently a dark one. The events
of the play all take place at night, which is associated with secrecy, darkness, and the supernatural. The
very name of the play, “Ruby Moon”, evokes images of darkness, night and death.
The setting also includes a scrim to allow projections; scrims are opaque when lit from the front and
transparent when lit from behind. This modern technique allows the use of multi-media onstage.
Prologue
The suburban distopia is evoked by the sound of a “distorted music-box version of ‘Greensleeves’
crackling from an ice-cream van speaker”. Sylvie is seated and Ray stands, implying their status in
their relationship. The gothic atmosphere is evoked by the independently moving rocking chair and the
sound of a storm. A “ghostly” voice-over of Ruby addresses the audience directly with, “It begins like a
fairytale…” Immediately the strange and supernatural style of a fairytale is evoked.
Sylvie is sensitive to Ruby’s ghostly voice, but Ray ignores it, instead engaging in the clichéd small-talk
of a suburban marriage, “I’m home.” Their heteronormative relationship is established as Sylvie is asked
about life at home and Ray about life out in the world. However, they become confused about the process
of a normal marital interaction, and Sylvie asks, “How do we do this again?” After a telling pause, they
again engage in small talk and the characters that populate this dark, fairytale suburbia are discussed.
Grandma Moon’s answering machine message about Ruby is played as a foreshadowing of Ruby’s
disappearance.
Ray again repeats his request for a kiss, but it is evident that Sylvie cannot return his affection as she is
too distracted by her child’s disappearance. Instead she hears Ruby practicing piano. Ray is unable to hear
the piano, but Sylvie and the audience can. This style of theatre, when a character’s inner mind is
represented onstage, is known as “expressionism”. Sylvie praises her six year old, absent daughter and
sings one of Ruby’s songs,
“She’s not in the room
She’s not outside
Hide from the world
The curtain girl”
This song, reminiscent of a nursery rhyme, not only brings to mind images of childhood and secrecy, but
also of the strange and mysterious nature of the fictional characters of the stage. Ruby, as a fictional
character in a play, is literally behind the curtain, but as a character that never appears in the play her
identity and reality are even more amorphous. She is literally hidden behind the stage curtain, inaccessible
to her fictional parents and to the audience who will hear her story.
The other implication of the term “curtain girl” is the suburban association of curtained windows that
hide the reality of domestic life from others but are also peered though voyeuristically to discover the
truth of one’s neighbours.
At this point Ray refers to Ruby in the “past tense”, a constant source of conflict between the couple.
Ray’s use of the past tense demonstrates his acceptance that Ruby is gone, whereas Sylvie can’t accept
her death.
They discuss her habit of hiding behind the curtain at the back of the stage, which, being red velvet, acts
as a clichéd second stage curtain, as though Ruby has disappeared into a fictional space that exists behind
the fiction space created by the stage. It is almost as though we are watching a play with embedded layers
of fictionality. Behind the fictional world presented onstage is another layer of fictionality into which
Ruby may have disappeared. However, very soon after this, the suburban implication of the curtain is
evoked by Sylvie saying, “I kept the curtains closed all day”, to keep herself safe and closed off from
her neighbours.
Sylvie, along with the audience, hears the phone ring, which Ray is oblivious to. Sylvie has a
conversation with Ruby. Ray tries again to restore their normal relationship, asking for a kiss. He offers
her pills which she pretends to swallow, presumably some sort of anti-depressant or tranquilliser. To help
calm her he offers to tell her a story. Sylvie fetches a worn leather book and as Ray reads the simple
rhyming couplets, like those of a nursery rhyme, it becomes apparent that we are hearing the story of
Ruby’s disappearance. Ray can’t bear to tell the story and fiercely tells Sylvie to “Grow up”. Sylvie
replies that Ruby will “never be to old for them [stories]”; the first indication that Ruby is an integral
aspect of Sylvie’s own personality.
Ray is afraid that the neighbours will hear them arguing and the couple then discuss the facts of Ruby’s
disappearance, a subtle and convincing piece of exposition. Sylvie slips into the use of the past tense
when revealing the sequence of events which each feature a neighbour. She then presents a sinister prop,
a plastic doll’s arm of which she claims, “It’s Ruby Doll’s arm.” The doll becomes a sick and
mysterious symbol for Ruby and the couple panic that Ruby, too, is being dismantled. The couple decides
to question their neighbours once again.
Scene One
Ray is spotlighted as an indication that this scene will focus on him. He walks on the spot to the
accompaniment of a gothic, suburban, nighttime soundscape. Dulcie’s nature is indicated by a “Kum Bah
Yah” door chime, an amusing contrast to the noises we have heard.
With the introduction of Dulcie, the audience discovers one of the unique techniques of this play, the use
of multiple characters played by one actor. This technique makes it difficult to suspend disbelief and is
very demanding on actors. It also implies that Ray and Sylvie are populating their own play, playing out a
variety of roles behind their suburban curtains. Ray has walked on the spot rather than exited the stage,
and there is no direction for the set to be changed. Dulcie, an “elderly spinster”, speaks for herself and
her parrot Polly, who she gives a religious bent. Both the audience and Ray realise she is speaking the
parrot’s words; religious phrases that establish the theme of religiosity and good and evil in the scene.
Dulcie also refers to Little Red Riding Hood, again echoing the theme of fairytale.
Ruby’s innocence is questioned and we are, rather ambiguously, introduced to the mannequin Ruby that
is outside the Moon’s house. The dangers of suburbia are, in this scene, transformed by Dulcie’s
imagination into a battle of good and evil, where the innocent or those who don’t put their faith in the
bible can fall victim to character such as Mr Craven or the Gallows boy, “The Wizard”.
Scene Two
Ruby’s piano music begins this scene as her father enters with the mannequin of Ruby. The mannequin
acts as yet another visual metaphor for Ruby’s identity, a simulacrum in place of the real version. The
mannequin is dressed naively but the face is disfigured by smudged makeup. Sylvie reacts to the
mannequin as though it is the real Ruby, and when her behaviour is questioned by Ray she asks him to,
“let me pretend.” His answer, “That’s all we do.” is an ambiguous one. They make believe their
daughter is alive, but perhaps all that is happening is make believe; perhaps Ray and Sylvie simply play
their neighbours, or even pretend to have had a daughter, as the protagonists in Edward Albee’s famous
play Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? do. The audience is also made aware that they are watching two
actors onstage whose role it is to pretend.
Sylvie exits the stage and, very ominously, Ray removes the arm of the mannequin, just as the doll’s arm
has been removed. He pretends that it was an accident and Sylvie insists they put the mannequin back on
the kerb, where the neighbours can peer at it “Through the cracks in their curtains.” We spy through
our curtain to the stage just as the neighbours spy from their windows.
To complete the scene, Cameron gives a stage direction that “they form a family portrait behind the
mannequin as they stare out.” This way, the strange and macabre trio, a gothic mockery of suburban
existence, confronts the audience.
Scene Three
Sylvie now walks on the spot lit by the spotlight, and we again hear the nightscape and Ruby’s music.
This is interrupted by Sid’s laugh. He turns on the light and we are confronted by the sight of him in a
blood-stained singlet and a skull cap. The bloodstains immediately mark him as a suspect for Ruby’s
murder and the skull cap, “as worn under a wig”, implies yet another character who dresses up and
makes believe.
Sylvie is relatively unconcerned by the blood but we are informed that Sid usually has “a face on” and
impersonates the neighbours, just as the actors playing Sylvie and Ray do. Again, the question of identity
is posed. Is Sid really just Ray? Are any of the neighbours real?
Sylvie asks about the blood and the theatre of the absurd is again referenced, this time by Sid removing
his shoe and putting a stone in his hat. In Samuel Beckett’s seminal absurdist piece, Waiting for Godot,
this little set piece of action, checking a shoe and a hat, is used by the characters Vladimir and Estragon to
imply that there is no meaning to be found in the universe. They too are clowns, as Sid is.
In the course of this scene, Sid acts out the events of Ruby’s disappearance, as Sylvie watches on with the
audience. Sid moves between multiple roles, just as the actors playing Sylvie and Ray do.
Yet another reference is made to the ambiguity of the meaning of curtains. Sid says of Veronica Vale,
whose name is a homonym for yet another form of curtain, that “The curtains part and she puts on a
show.” Sid, and presumably others, voyeuristically watch Veronica as she puts on her show. Her
suburban curtains act as those of a stage, and she, seemingly, invites the neighbours to watch.
In the final moments of this scene we discover it is Sid who has been disfiguring the Ruby mannequin’s
face with makeup. He claims “she liked me making her face disappear”, another reference to Ruby’s
ephemeral nature and her desire to escape behind theatricality.
Scene Four
To begin this scene there is “an ominous knock at the door” and a dim light, again establishing an
atmosphere of fear. Sylvie and Ray discuss The Wizard, who, despite his “dark heart” is also a “beacon
of hope”, as he “came back”. He plays Ruby’s tune on a wooden pipe, evidently the same wooden pipe
that played it in the previous scene, and Sylvie says, “He used to tell Ruby he could make things
disappear.” The couple questions his ability to perform magic and yet another brown paper package
arrives on the doorstep. Sylvie claims of The Wizard, “He spirited her away into the night, playing his
magic pipe.” This reference is to another fairytale, The Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The package contains a leg from Ruby Doll and Ray says he’ll go for a walk. Sylvie accuses him of going
to see Veronica’s striptease, which he denies.
Scene Five
Ray whispers “Behind the velvet curtain, the siren of the night, with sweet caress of secrets
confessed.” Veronica’s curtain, like the one Ruby used to hide behind, is also velvet, like that of a stage
curtain. Veronica appears, a cliché of the femme fatale, “dressed in a wig, high heels, a lacy slip, a silk
gown and a red feather boa.” She sings of lovers whose relationship has turned to one of tears and
whose sexual bond has been drowned by sorrow. The aesthetic of this spotlighted scene is in the style of a
jazz club.
Ray asks if he should draw the curtain but Veronica is all open theatricality; “let them watch.” Veronica
claims they’re lovers, but Ray denies it. Veronica says she was giving Ruby singing lessons and that
Ruby “wanted to be famous,” which can be interpreted as wanting to disappear behind the curtain of
theatricality. We hear that Ray and Sylvie’s relationship is not sexual and that, tellingly, Sylvie is
sleeping in Ruby’s bed, another blurring of their identities. Veronica views the world in terms of sexuality
and even sexualises Ruby on the basis that she wore a “little red dress.” After this sordid interlude she
offers Ray sex in full view of the neighbourhood voyeurs, then kisses him and he responds.
Veronica ends the interlude by stating that Ray is far from solving the mystery. She claims, “you’re
walking on the spot,” a reference not only to the lack of progress he is making but also to the physical
action at the start of scene one. Throughout the play, we are constantly alerted to the overt theatrical
techniques which are used, which challenges the suspension of disbelief and forces us to question the
layers of fiction and make believe taking place.
Scene Six
In this scene we are introduced to Sonny Jim, an ex-soldier who epitomises heightened masculinity, just
as Veronica epitomises heightened femininity. He is revealed pointing a gun at Sylvie, and the scene is
rich with his macho antics, enacting both the role of hero and of victim. He claims Ray is no longer
working, but merely searching for Ruby and loitering at his mother’s house. Ray’s masculinity is called
into question by Sonny Jim, who claims he would seek gruesome revenge on the murderer.
Sonny Jim’s relationship with his mother is a feature of this scene, and his pathetic poem humorously
reveals his desperate insecurity, the root of his need to present as a hard man. The mystery of Ruby’s
disappearance is revealed further and a misunderstanding occurs when Sylvie, and the audience, are told
by Sonny Jim that he has found a small body. However, it is Ruby Doll he found; the ambiguity of
Ruby’s identity again being highlighted.
Scene Seven
Sylvie jumps with a skipping rope, regressing to childhood and blurring her identity with Ruby’s. She
chants a classic children’s rhyme, which includes reference to a doll and kissing a soldier. Considering
her interaction with Sonny Jim this is an ambiguous reference both to her and her daughter’s behaviour.
Another package is discovered but when it is opened Sylvie reacts very differently. Now, she feels, she is
being given back her daughter piece by piece. She attaches the arm and leg to the torso but then realises
the other simulacrum of Ruby, the mannequin, is missing. Sylvie ends the scene by again behaving like a
child, curling up on the armchair and listening to a music box.
Scene Eight
Ray again walks on the spot and the nighttime soundscape plays. Dawn, the babysitter, has rubber bands
wrapped around her face, “making her look deformed”. She opens a suitcase for Ray and brings out yet
another Ruby, this time another doll. She is fetishistic about her doll, dreaming of the suburban “picture
book” it represents. For Dawn, the suburbia represented by the Moon’s is still a fairytale of domesticity.
Ray coaxes Dawn into removing the rubber bands, which she does after reciting a self-deprecating
nursery rhyme and explaining her self-hatred. Dawn openly envies the doll’s beauty, planning the plastic
surgery that will make her yet another version of Ruby, even choosing the pseudonym “Rosie”.
Dawn denies having anything to do with Ruby’s disappearance and sings Ruby’s song. She accuses
Professor Ogle of sending the packages. The scene ends with thunder.
Scene Nine
The scene begins with an answering machine message from the detective. Again, the style is
expressionism, and Ray cannot hear the message though Sylvie can. In this scene the friction between the
two comes to a climax, as the couple face their sexual relationship and Sylvie accuses Ray of an affair
with Veronica. Ray is sexually violent and in the face of this onslaught, his innocence is called into
question.
Scene Ten
Sylvie, to the accompaniment of the nighttime soundscape, watches Carl pack his bags. The professor
admits to killing Ruby and it seems as though the mystery has finally been solved. Sylvie lashes out at
him and he presents a list of his victims. However, the professor’s guilt is imaginary. He believes he has
created a black hole, the ultimate form of disappearance. All hope of Ruby being found evaporates with
the professor’s ludicrous, pseudo-scientific explanation of his guilt.
Epilogue
Ray, lit by moonlight, calls for Sylvie. He picks up the headless Ruby Doll and pulls a string on its back.
The doll repeats Ruby’s opening line, “It begins like a fairytale” and finishes with, “but how does it
end?” We are made aware that the play is coming to an end and that the suburban fairytale fantasy is
unraveling further. Ruby’s tune plays again on the wooden pipe and Ray opens a trapdoor in the floor,
calling for Ruby. He searches the room and finally pulls aside the curtain upstage, revealing Ruby
mannequin. Once again Ruby’s simulacrum is all that can be found, but Ray reacts as though it is his
daughter.
A knock at the door turns out to be Sylvie dressed as Ruby and carrying a brown paper package. Ray
reacts as though his daughter is home and the two open the package which contains Ruby Doll’s head.
Sylvie’s identity once more merges with Ruby’s and the reality of the situation becomes confused as the
couple claim there is no wizard, and reunite as father and daughter. Sylvie then kisses Ray passionately
and they embrace as lovers. Ray makes Sylvie stop and she then confronts him, accusing him of Ruby’s
murder. Ray retaliates by saying she is the murderer.
The fictional layers of the play are alarmingly stripped bare as Ray accuses Sylvie as making up Dulcie,
saying she is “nothing more than the sum total of every pious, judgmental thought you’ve ever
had!” He fetches the birdcage and reveals it to be empty. The couple then play out each of the roles that
have been assumed during the course of the play and we are left with the certainty that they have merely
pretended from the beginning; that they have not left the room; that the other characters are the unseemly
aspects of themselves. A moment of crisis is reached when Sylvie challenges the very existence of Ruby,
asking “Was there a child, Ray?” Ray draws the line at this and the couple shift back into their role of
grieving parents. They again cast around for a perpetrator, this time fixing on the ice-cream man, the
telephone repairman, or, tellingly, the Wizard, who they have already admitted to making up. The phone
rings once more and this time Ray hears it. He opens the leather book and recites another series of
couplets, this time more sinister and macabre than ever. Sylvie begs him, “don’t let it end like that” and
the moon shines blood red. The play then comes full circle as the events of the prologue are repeated.
Ruby’s tune plays on the piano one last time and Ruby’s voice is heard singing her refrain. The play ends
with this nursery rhyme and the description of her as “the curtain girl” as the lights fade, leaving the
couple and the Ruby mannequin lit by the red moon as the rocking horse again moves of its own accord.
Kate Stavert 2006