Steak Out
★★★★☆ Meaty
Gilded Balloon Teviot (Venue 14): Wed 5 – Mon 31 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Steak Out from Ruaraidh Murray at the Gilded Balloon throughout the Fringe, is a funny, oddly touching and very well constructed piece.
The play features Murray himself as Archie, a down-on-his-luck Pilton butcher who has seen better days (which can also be said for his shop). In order to keep afloat, he hatches a plan to rob his former employer Smedley, a prosperous Stockbridge butcher, just before Christmas. Accompanying the hapless Archie are his partner Karen (Reanne Farley), her son unemployed actor Choo Choo (Sean Langtree) and, inconveniently, a one-year-old.
Reanne Farley and Ruaraidh Murray. Pic Daniel Holden.
There are inescapable echoes of Irvine Welsh in the expansive evocation of Edinburgh’s demi-monde, but the influence of heist movies and comedy capers gives this another dimension. The play is able to go into both comic set-pieces and considerably darker areas without losing its focus and cohesion, which is the sign of a thoroughly accomplished writer.
Some of the characters have evolved from Murray’s Junkies, which was also to have starred Grant Stott and the late Andy Gray, but had to be curtailed after one performance due to Gray’s illness. As presented here, the participants are certainly well-rounded, rather lovable and played with panache.
crumpled
Murray’s Archie is gruff, prone to wilful misunderstanding and somewhat sweet. There’s an inviting twinkle to the character, as well as a crumpled, defeated air, but with a harder edge always visible. Langtree’s Choo Choo has a hangdog and glaikit vulnerability that is endearing.
Karen, meanwhile, is a layered character played with considerable subtlety by Farley. She gets many of the play’s most emotional moments, and carries them off very well indeed. Michael Nardone’s direction is sympathetic and beautifully paced, bringing out the piece’s humanity and humour extremely effectively.
Ruaraidh Murray, Sean Langtree and Reanne Farley. Pic: Daniel Holden.
The flow of the piece is helped greatly by Almut Echler’s design, which is an object lesson in how to stage a play in those small-space, quick-turnaround Fringe venues; rarely have a job lot of transparent plastic crates been put to better use.
There are moments in the story that are a little too predictable, and making one of the characters an actor means there are more jokes about the business of acting that sit comfortably in the narrative. However, the overall effect is of a breezy, involving and gloriously local piece of theatre.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Gilded Balloon Teviot (Billiard Room), 13 Bristo Sq, EH8 9AJ. (Venue 14).
Wednesday 5 – Monday 31 August 2026.
Daily (not 17, 24) at 7pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Ruaraidh Murray’s website: ruaraidhmurray.co.uk
Facebook: @ruaraidhmurrayactor
Instagram: @ruaraidhrurymurray
Reanne Farley, Sean Langtree and Ruaraidh Murray. Pic; Daniel Holden.
ENDS
