Trophy Boys, Soft Tread Productions in association with The Maybe Pile, Canberra Theatre, Courtyard Studio, 5-10 Aug

 

Emmanuelle Mattana's satiric black comedy is a masterful look at modern masculinity from multiple angles - as four year 12 boys at an expensive private school prepare for their final debating competition, doing the affirmative case for "That Feminism has Failed Women". It's a look at how the modern language of inclusivity has become a shield for people whose have no real understanding and empathy for the causes it claims to espouse, about how underlying privileges really work, and about how tensions build in a hot box situation as we spend the hour before the debate in a room with these four young men (who, as the title suggests, are nowhere near maturing beyond boyhood yet but are already involved in adult activities in a mostly damaging way). 

Essential to the play is that the four boys are played by 4 women in their twenties - all performing different types of masculinity, from Mattana performing an intensely nerdy self-described male feminist to brutal perfection, to Leigh Lule's ultra bro with a softer underside that is painfully obvious to see, Gaby Seow's fourth speaker who tries to get out from their low spot on the totem pole and a fourth actress (named briefly in a pre-show announcement as filling in for a cast member out with illness) who fits in perfectly with minimal reference to an onstage script as the Girlfriend Guy who can't stop talking about her even as it appears he knows very little about her.

Marni Mount's production makes the show a pressure cooker, tight and vigorous, as the boys prowl their preparation room, eventually turning on each other as tensions are ratcheted up. There's a strong sense of physicality in the performances as the balance between insecurity and confidence in these princes of privilege try to weasel their way around the consequences they might be facing. It's a sharply observed piece which is as funny as it is bitter, and it's a throroughly engaging night. 

The Courtyard studio is the last produciton of the current tour of this show - but given the nature of the show (70 minutes long, one set, perfect for festival slots on a regular basis) and the sold out productions both here and at previous tour venues, there's no doubt this is a show that has a lot more mileage in it - and should be staged and examined everywhere.