Niall Ransome, a member of the Olivier Award winning Mischief Theatre Company, demonstrates his ability to craft an incredible piece of theatre with Fcuk’d, a true state of the nation drama which is playing this Fringe at the Gilded Balloon Teviot.
“This is England kid” says our protagonist, more specifically it’s a skid-row type street in Hull, where our narrator has become de-facto parent to his younger brother. Whatever it is that’s causing their mother to sleep through important events in all of their lives demonstrates that she’s unfit, and social services agree, threatening to take the younger brother in to care.
It falls to the older brother to ‘rescue’ the most important person in his life, by taking him on the run. He breaks the law, but he tells us he doesn’t have any choice, and we believe him. As the brothers are on the run, we learn more about what’s important to them, and how important they are to each other.
Written entirely in verse the whole piece is gloriously poetic, but at the same time gritty and emotional. There’s no holding back with Fcuk’d, as raw fear fills the room the audience are transfixed by the story unfolding in front of them. The verse becomes hypnotic against the harsh reality that the boys find themselves in.
George Edwards gives an outstanding performance as the teenager forced to grow up too fast, with only an overturned wheelie bin on stage for company, he commands the audience’s attention with this brave story of a determined young man, who in real life would find himself judged all too quickly.
Fcuk’d gives us something that we don’t always see in theatre, a working class story that is grim reality for many families, but widely ignored in greater society. Beautifully written and performed, Fcuk’d is a modern-day masterpiece of storytelling.
