Plastering over the cracks and wounds of life, writer-performer Joe Mallalieu’s play, RUM, opens the door on masculinity and men’s mental health in a hard-hitting, but often funny monologue. This is in London, at Camden People’s Theatre, for a short run as part of a wider tour.
Danny is a third-generation plasterer, always pushed to be strong, tough, and violent. He is fixing up a job left unfinished in a posh house, while trying to write a speech for his friend Jason.
Directed by Tess Seddon and designed by Rūta Irbīte (set/costume), Amy Mae (lighting), and Lee Affen (sound), RUM is that kind of drama that slowly burns through an uneasy storyline of childhood abuse and peer pressure from adults who know no better.
Danny is conflicted about the path he has taken – idolising his grandfather who terrorised clients while basking in the admiration of regulars at the local pub. An admiration driven by fear rather than anything positive.
Forming a plastering firm, DJK Plastering, with Jason and Kyle, Danny follows the family path of patching up houses he can’t afford, fuelled by booze and coke. He tells us he is only good at four things: drinking, plastering, fighting and sh*gging. He’s not good at words or figures. He’s not good at business.
Mallalieu offers a bravura performance throughout, capturing Danny’s pride, bluster, damage and vulnerability. He maintains eye contact with audience members: no looking away allowed from this story.
Danny recalls difficult moments involving his dad, a dog, and his son. It is not easy to hear these tales when they are so clearly described and visualised, and time and again he pushes back any hint of his own humanity. Despite this, the character is not one-dimensional, not just a Made In Britain-style thug.
RUM takes place in a tense triangle of space, strewn with the paraphernalia of the building trade. Lighting changes enhance scenes that are either highly emotional or almost dreamlike.
The ending is both tender and tragic, as the pieces start to fit together; the whys and whens of a culture that celebrates brutality and kicks out at weakness.
Mallalieu knows this world of Northern plasterers. He was one himself before taking to the stage. He knows the tricks, the lingo, the heavy assumptions, the prospects. The machismo. This makes RUM into a riveting and gripping drama.
Producers Emmerson and Ward are partnered with Andy’s Man Club, a suicide prevention charity, for this tour of RUM, and the issues around provocation, pressure and broken spirits are obviously understood deeply.
RUM is a cry for help from the furthest recesses of the psyche of one man. It asks us to allow men to open up and recognise they can change and are not doomed to be defined by their life experiences.
I am giving this 5 stars. Exceptional work. I can’t recommend it enough. Mallalieu has created an important work about and for working-class men. If you haven’t caught it on its previous runs; now’s your chance!
RUM is at Camden People’s Theatre to 25 Apr as part of a wider tour – details here.