Written by
Melissa Bubnic
Directed by
Caroline Stacey – Musical Direction by Jess Green
Designed by
Imogen Keen – Lighting Design by Niklas Pajanti
Movement
direction by – Emma Strapps – Sound Design by Kimmo Vennonen
The Street
Theatre, 27th October to 11th November, 2017
Performance
on 9th November reviewed by Bill Stephens
Melissa
Bubnic’s play is designed to shock and disturb. Set in the high-powered world
of corporate finance, peopled with unlovable characters, who enthusiastically embrace
the worst excesses of corporate behaviour, and who regale each other with an
endless stream of gutter-language, it’s a play that makes for uncomfortable
viewing, despite a slick and sophisticated production by Caroline Stacey and
her creative team.
Imogen Keen’s
marvellous setting of smoky, transparent shiny surfaces, create a surreal
effect by allowing characters to be seen
moving behind the action taking place in front of them, and which, when moved
at different angles, allowed outside noises to interrupt the action. Excellent use
of haze, sound and lighting suggests the dubious glamour of the seedy night
clubs and strip joints frequented by the protagonist, Astrid and her milieu.
 |
| Isha Menon (Priya) and Pippa Grandison (Astrid) in "Boys Will Be Boys" |
As Astrid, the
female currency trader at the top of her game, who’s decided that the only way
she can survive in a world of boys being boys is to join them, Pippa Grandison
gives a compelling performance. Initially strong and assertive, her crumbling
at the revelation that her protégé has usurped her, provides the acting highpoint
of the production. However, her scatter-gun delivery often made it difficult to
catch her lines, a problem acerbated by the use of microphones for the songs, and
then switching back to un-miked dialogue for the play.
It is
difficult to fathom why popular songs like “I Love Being Here With You”, “Hey
There”, and “Sisters” are interpolated into the play. Halting the play at
various points, to include them, held up the action and slowed the pace of the
play dangerously.
Isha Menon
also gives an impressive performance as the wannabe broker, Priya, willing to
do anything to get to the top, but discovering that ultimately, the price was
too high. Kiki Skountzos plays the most likeable character, the wily
prostitute, Isabelle, who’s already been through the mill and is reluctant to
re-open old wounds.
The conceit
of having the male characters played by women proved distracting. Diana Nixon needed
to inject much more physical and vocal gravitas into her acting to convince as
the bluff, back-stabbing office manager, Arthur, and while Joanna Richards had
more success as Harrison, the boy whose Daddy’s position got him the job, but not
the respect of his colleagues, neither actor was able to lift their performances
beyond drag cliché.
Ultimately
it was difficult to feel empathy with any of the characters in this play, or
the predicaments in which they find themselves. Despite the excellent
production values lavished on the play, and the committed performances of the
cast, Bubnic’s play is so aggressive that whatever her message, the
over-whelming emotion on leaving the theatre is one of relief in escaping the cacophony
of coarse language and ugly behaviour.
This review also appears in Australian Arts Review. www.artsreview.com.au