Steak Out ***

T’was the night before Christmas – well, almost, the night before anyway. Not a creature was stirring, except for the family robbing the butchers in Stockbridge, Edinburgh.

Archie is a serial low-level robber and he is a little down on his luck. He has hatched a plan to rob Smedley’s butchers in the small hours of Christmas Eve, selling the meat shortly after that morning and trousering whatever cash he stumbles across.

But this is not simply criminal opportunism. Archie used to work for Smedley three years ago and knows him well enough to be confident that he’ll have neither changed the locks nor installed CCTV. Moreover, there is also a simmering resentment towards Smedley himself, which is revealed in layers throughout Steak Out.

It looks like a pretty straightforward heist. Archie intimately knows the lie of the land and Smedley’s routine. His accomplices will be his wife Karen and stepson Sammy. There is a last-minute babysitting complication and grandson Thomas is comically brought along for the ride.

The best laid plans of mice and men: the couple manage to get locked in a freezer, due to Smedley’s foreshadowed meanness, and must await Sammy’s rescue. This duly follows, but they have now lost precious time and events begin to overtake them.

This comedy-drama is well written, finding its layers as texture and backstories are gradually revealed and the protagonists’ motivations ebb and flow. Directed by Michael Nardone, Steak Out mostly moves at a decent pace, although the crate-shifting scene labours a little. The jokes mostly land, especially those of a self-deprecating nature.

The performances are all strong. Ruaraidh Murray once again impresses, portraying the conflicted, downtrodden, Archie who is looking for a way to push back. He conveys institutionalised pain, yet realises that “the show must go on”. Sean Langtree as Sammy provides comic relief, while Reanne Farley convinces as the resentful matriarch, having palpable chemistry with Murray.

There is a cost-of-living crisis out there, and a swathe of people for whom gentrification and “progress” are merely ideas — the backdrop, of course, to Steak Out. Beneath its comic surface, the play finds something more pointed about people who feel left behind and are struggling to reclaim some agency.

A solid Fringe hour, with enough laughs, heart and social bite to make this heist worth joining.

Gilded Balloon Bristo Square, until 31^st August.