After the success of Katherine Moar’s play Farm Hall in 2023 (which subsequently transferred to the West End), Katherine returns to the Jermyn Street Theatre with a new play ‘Ragdoll’.
Inspired by the true life events of Patty Hearst, Ragdoll tells the story of a teenage girl from a famous American publishing family, who was kidnaped, raped and radicalised in 1974 by the Symbionese Liberation Army.
After she was caught by police for robbing a bank, she was put on trial. But did she join the cult willingly or was she brainwashed into it? Ragdoll examines the story between the hot shot lawyer, who was hired to defend Holly, forty years after the event.
Having not spoken for forty years, Holly receives a letter from the lawyer. She doesn’t have fond feelings for him as she was sentenced to 35 years in prison (reduced to seven years and eventually pardoned by President Bill Clinton). But now he is being accused of sexual assault and thinks her testimony will help.
But why should she help him? Back in a time when women weren’t believed, courts thought that she couldn’t have been held against her will or raped because she didn’t fight it and ultimately this privileged rich girl deserved to pay for her crimes.
The play is told through the modern day eyes of Robert (Nathaniel Parker) and Holly (Abigail Cruttenden), looking back at their younger selves (played by Ben Lamb and Katie Matsell).
The writing is good but the story is thin. At just 75 minutes long, the play doesn’t really go in to detail about what happened forty years ago. We don’t know who to believe or why Robert even thinks she is the best person to help him after forty years of silence. Some more meaty stories of Holly being in the cult, or even her time spent in prison could have added some drama to the story.
The actors all do a great job but the whole thing just feels a bit beige (or should I say cream).
I was excited to see Ragdoll – a story of a young socialite who turned to bank robbery for social justice but it didn’t really tell me the story I was hoping to see. Enjoyable and not at all bad – there is just the potential for it to be so much better.
★★★
West End Wilma
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