Ruff Trade (The Motley Bauhaus) ★★★1/2

Written by Steven Dawson. Midsumma Festival. The Motley Bauhaus. 23 Jan – 10 Feb, 2024

Steven Dawson’s Ruff Trade starts off as a sex comedy about a 16th century male sex worker and unexpectedly ends up being a bitter tragedy. Strangely the heel-turn works, making for a satisfying, and gleefully historically inaccurate, short play.

Ned (Matthew Newell) is an affable male sex worker who has a big client on the way. To help “warm up” he’s asked a friend, and former fellow sex worker, Thomas (Liam O’Kane) to quickly screw him to, um, open things up back there. The longer his next client lasts, the more money he gets paid, so he doesn’t want to be too tight. As they fuck, they chat about the old days. Thomas has been gone for a few years and they catch up as best they can under the circumstances. But Thomas is distracted, Ned’s incessant chat doesn’t help much. When Ned’s fancy client arrives, a playwright named Kit (Gabriel Partington) he wants to talk instead of have sex. He has to leave London soon… but maybe Ned would like to join him?

It definitely feels like Dawson started with a comedic scenario and then let his characters run away with the story. Normally that would feel loose and indulgent but with the short running time and three excellent performances Ruff Trade makes it work. The transition of silliness to awkward romance to, well, spoilers… but there’s blood in the end, is strangely smooth when you consider the ground the play covers in 70 minutes.

Newell’s Ned is sweet and charming, and it’s his performance that really carries the piece. It’s not an easy thing to go from Blackadder character to Shakespearean tragedy in three scenes, but he does it. Shakespearean? I guess I should say Marlowe-ian? Is that even a word? Both Partington’s Kit (yes, he’s playing Christopher Marlowe as the programme notes make clear) and O’Kane’s Thomas are melancholy, with the weight of the real world on their shoulders in a way Ned blithely ignores. It’s the collision of gritty truth into Ned’s positive outlook that tears things apart.

Ruff Trade isn’t the silly comedy it pretends to be, but that’s perfectly fine. The story we get has legs and would be interesting to see played out over a full length play.