What was it like for Ruth Madoff (Emily Swain), wife of a jailed fraudster billionaire Bernie? This is the premise of Roger Steinmann's play Ruthless.
Did she know what he was doing, looking the other way while enjoying an ultra-luxurious lifestyle? Or was she an innocent victim, kept in the dark and subsequently hounded, lonely and lost when his crimes were uncovered?
The play starts with 'Ruthie' as her husband called her, getting ready for a family dinner, except no one comes when she calls. Her husband is in prison, and both her sons have died; one from cancer, and the other took his own life.
She imagines she's in a relationship with the young pizza delivery man, even packing a suitcase to go away with him. He runs for the hills. She is harassed by victims of her husband's fraud and reporters, seeing them off with a gun. She drinks and smokes. She makes or ignores phone calls.
No one knows her husband like her, she claims, while also saying he lied to her. She laments her lost life yet expresses a preference for the ethical and ordinary. She is a mass of contradictions.
She is consumed by self-pity, prone to anger, delusional, grasping, flirtatious, and charming.
There are oddities, such as dragging chairs around, putting dresses on over jeans, and a strange scene in which her husbands and sons speak to her from beyond the grave (using tape-recorded voices).
Bernie blames her and her desire for more for his behaviour, having previously professed her innocence. Is this her subconscious? Guilt?
There is no transition or arc with the character of Ruth; she is everything all at once, to the point where it is difficult to know what to think or feel about her.
What have we learned from her as portrayed? Does it offer any answers or views on the question of innocent or guilty either way?
Ruth Madoff lived an extraordinary life, one that is worthy of dramatisation – she has been portrayed by the likes of Michelle Pfeiffer and Blythe Danner in films. However, I'm not sure what the overall message was with Ruthless.
Ruthless, Arches Lane Theatre
Written and directed by Roger Steinmann
Starring Emily Swain as Ruth Madoff
Running time 90 minutes
Booking until 26 June.
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