Temporal setting: Circa 2000
Location notes:
The narrative of Ruby Moon takes place in the fictional Australian suburb of Flaming Tree Grove. The set is designed to represent "a timeless, placeless world", with the action moving fluidly from the street to the interior of homes on a cul-de-sac.
Coordinates are given for Hawthorn in the inner suburbs of Melbourne. This choice is based on playwright Matt Cameron's imagining of the setting. "Overwhelmingly the street felt to me like a street that probably looks picture-perfect during the day but at
night suddenly becomes frightening and portentous. I grew up in the sad, bare outer suburbs [of Melbourne]. This
particular image, though, was probably more inner suburban with old deciduous trees, a really established
suburb."
(http://australianplays.org/assets/files/resource/doc/Ruby_Moon_Matt_Cameron_Interview.pdf)
The interior and exterior spaces in Ruby Moon are not distinct from one another. The set and plot intentionally blur the action as it moves from space to space. The presence of the exterior street- the dead-end street- pervades all interior action, with characters constantly looking outwards, at the street, at the night, for Ruby.
Quotes
A timeless, placeless world featuring an armchair, standing lamp, rocking horse, gramophone, telephone, answering machine and coat stand with various garments. The furnishings are antique in a room evoking dust-covered memory. Upstage is a blood-red velvet curtain and scrim, allowing objects to 'appear' and 'disappear' with light. There is also a street lamp and the bare branches of blackened trees pointing like gnarled fingers through a vivid night sky. A full moon hovers.
(p. 1)
RAY:"... Cicadas pulsed in the shimmering heat
Concrete was caramel under your feet and
The ice-cream van turned slow motion into the dead-end street."
(p. 5)
SYLVIE: "They're trying to break us. Someone has our answer, Ray. We have to keep going. The further down the street we go, the closer we get."
RAY: "But it's a dead-end street.
He embraces her, clutching her to him.
What are we doing? What are we doing to ourselves?"
(p. 34)