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Steak Out

Gilded Balloon

Three stars 

 

Meat is murder - almost - in  Ruaraidh Murray’s latest trawl through Edinburgh’s off-grid underbelly (no, not that one) in a scurrilous pre Christmas yarn. This involves dodgy goings on in and around one of auld Reekie’s finest New Town butchers, where the choicest cuts are up for grabs. This is especially the case where the extended family led by Archie, his long suffering wife Karen and their son Thomas are concerned. 

 

Michael Nardone’s lo-fi production begins with an actual stake out as the trio scope out the legendary Smedley’s butcher’s shop, purveyors of quality meat products for quality people. As played by Murray, Reanne Farley and Sean Langtree, the trio case the joint with a potty mouthed banter that initially at least suggests an after hours sitcom in the making. The scene where all are trapped on the wrong side of a giant freezer trying to get out is priceless, and it is in set-piece routines like this where Murray’s writing and comic observation excels.

 

Beyond the punchline peppered machine-gun exchanges, however, there is a more serious undercurrent to proceedings. This comes across especially from Karen and her past experiences at the hands of the butcher. 

 

Developed with the 4Play new writing collective at the Traverse Theatre, and with support from Playwrights’ Studio Scotland, Steak Out is Murray’s latest frontline dispatch from Edinburgh’s grassroots theatre scene where he has developed a ruggedly individual dramatic voice over the last few years. With his characters roots in a previous play, The Junkies, there is definite scope hereto flesh things out further into some kind of serial. In the meantime, what happens in the raid on Smedley’s and everything that follows is well worth taking a butcher’s at. 

 

Until Aug 31, 7pm.


The Herald, August 16, 2026


ends

 

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