The Ruling Class

When I head that James McAvoy was going to be in a theatre production I just knew I had to buy tickets and so I did. Twice. 

The Ruling Class is about Jack, a possible paranoid schizophrenic with a Messiah complex, inherits the title of the 14th Earl of Gurney after his father passes away in a bizarre accident. Singularly unsuited to a life in the upper echelons of elite society, Jack finds himself at the centre of a ruthless power struggle as his scheming family strives to uphold its reputation. 

Honestly I have never seen a performance like it, it was great and quite captivating. It started off well and already had you engrossed within minutes and when it got to the end you just keep wanting more. I felt that James McAvoy played the part of Jack Gurney extremely well and I have never seen such effort put into stage acting. I literally could feel the pressure in my own head! He was shouting, dancing, fighting and doing a British accent (wahey!) The first time I saw it I knew I had to go back again and this time with front row seats. 

The second time around I enjoyed so much more! The seats were fantastic and I was on level with all of the actors. What a better way to spend a night than to see James McAvoy dancing around stage with God Is Love written on his chest. It was a dream come true and don't forget him riding around a unicycle with only his little tighty whities on! I am sure it is what everybody was looking at. 

Anyway enough of James' god like physique, The Ruling Class is an exceptionally good production and has everything that you need/want in a play. It has comedy, facts, darkness and history such as the name "Gurney" comes from the name of Mental Hospital in Barrow Gurney which was local to where the original writer Peter Barnes lived. It is definitely for all ages and the jokes in the play are still relevant even today. There were gun shots, weird parts and James running around imitating a dwarf. The family are quite obviously worried by the happiness at the beginning, they see the happiness as a sign of insanity.

Although this time around there was minor mistakes James and the rest of the cast were able to easily brush them off and you wouldn't even notice. James added some comedy into the mistakes also whilst looking at the crowd which made me laugh literally till I was in tears. At one point he knocked a plate and cup off of the table and said "God works in mysterious ways" which got the crowd going but the best for me was when he accidentally got one of the cast members wigs stuck to his shoe and he had to do a double take. With much gusto he kicks away with a witty remark of "I'm shedding". 

The performance was split into two halves, the first half being light and happy  and the second being quite dark and actually worrying. You follow this man through his journey of mental health and come away in deep though literally questioning your own sanity. With the only question left to ask, what is normal?


"I brush my teeth twice daily and smile!"