An arts practitioner from Perth has won an award for writing her own play and beaten off international competition to have it professionally staged in London.
Emerging playwright Ruth Rankin from Muirton in Perth wrote ‘The Box’, a one-character drama about an anguished military wife struggling to look after her three young children when her husband goes AWOL.
There were hundreds of entries for the play-writing competition held by the Soldiers’ Arts Academy.
Ruth is founder of Perthformance theatre arts school and is currently studying for a masters in education at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Her sister Naomi is a professional actor, her other sister Deborah is a serving officer in the Royal Navy.
Ruth’s play was live streamed from The Space in London on March 13 and the mum-of-three only found out about her win on the night.
Her monologue was picked out to be on the shortlist which included entries from established writers and amateurs from Germany, Italy and even Hollywood, California.
She told the PA she was “stunned” to discover that her story was judged to be best of the six finalists.
“I honestly didn’t think for a second my play would win,” Ruth said.
“That it did was a shock. I was stunned when I discovered that. But very honoured.
“I felt like an imposter. The only other UK finalist was from London. Then there was another finalist who had thousands of dollars lined up ready to back his project if he won.
“I told the judges the truth about my entry: I have a sister in the military and I just wrote it for her. Simple as that.
“I looked at the brief from the Soldiers’ Arts Academy, it had to have a military theme.
“They were looking for authenticity.
“I didn’t think I could write about war, I had no experience of it to draw on.
“They say ‘write what you know’, so I took the perspective of a woman, with children. I think that made it believable.
“My character is a military wife at a base in Henlow. Her soldier husband has PTSD.
“An object, this box, is always on the stage, the audience wonders what it contains. Eventually the wife just has to do something about it.
“I wrote it for a Scottish actor. There were words like ‘wee’ and ‘goonie’ in there.
“So when they cast English actor Lily Howkins in the role, I was delighted how she put her own twist on the script, I liked that.”
Ruth has written and directed material before, like UnTangled in 2020 with seed funding and support from Stellar Quines and Birds of Paradise.
UnTangled - which celebrates the relationship between a mother and her ASN child - will now be developed with Illumination Theatre Services to create a digital work for the Navigate project funded by Creative Scotland.
“With The Box, this was the first time I’d written for someone else to direct. It was a great experience,” Ruth commented.
Speaking about The Box, Drew Patterson the director said: “The winning play, ‘The Box’ by Ruth Rankin, is a beautifully observed and heartbreakingly raw piece, beautifully performed by Lily Howkins.
“Its simplicity is its strength.”
The Box is available to watch on demand by visiting the following website: https://space.org.uk/event/soldiers-arts-academy-showcase-livestream/#tabs-booking
