The University Book Shop was packed last night for a rehearsed reading of Robert Burns Fellow Victor Rodger’s reworking of his 2002 play Ranterstantrum, and they were in for quite an experience.

This is not a play for the weak of heart. The tension and shocking imagery in some scenes pack such punch in spoken word form I can only wonder at what it must be like to see them staged. As the characters are stretched to breaking point we see them explode with emotion that is sometimes terrifying and sometimes darkly funny.

Scattered amidst the emotional extremes are, perhaps most unnerving of all, moments of familiarity that will have you thinking, “I know someone who would react exactly like this.”

Although some references to recent events feel hastily shoe-horned in, the play’s themes of racism and dealing with trauma remain every bit as relevant today as they were fourteen years ago and are masterfully handled in the script’s bleak, unrelenting exploration.

The writing is, for the most part, of immensely high quality boasting dialogue that manages to balance coarse with clever and witty with raw.

Ranterstantrum Redux takes on a journey through a twisted world that resembles reality enough to make it a truly sobering experience. 

Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer