Girls & Boys, a one act, one woman play, set on a dreamscape stage in the ASB Waterfront Theatre explores the inherent danger of toxic masculinity. If only it was that simple. If it were, this review would be little more than a reiteration of endless social media memes and influencer psychobabble – and so much easier to write.
Dennis Kelly (a man) has written this one act play from the POV of a woman. This alone tips the apple-cart, sends up the usual red flags. I sit back in my seat as the house lights dim and the curtain rises.
On stage stands a rather ordinary-looking woman (Beatriz Romilly), dressed in white top and trousers, engaged in a soliloquy on the purpose of society, recounting how it’s designed to benefit men – in academia, business, the arts. She cautions us to be mindful that her story is not happening now and it is not happening to us, then launches into a somewhat over-detailed account of how she met her husband.
She’s sarcastic, ironic, reminiscent of a sea of stand-up comedians, but a bit amateur, ordinary. Everyone has a funny story about how they met Mr Right. They were insanely happy and the sex… Then she fell pregnant and they got married. She wanders around and through the rotating stage, telling us how she loves her job, his business is successful. They have a second child and struggle with work-life balance. The ups and downs of the ordinary life story of a hundred women I’ve known.
I wonder where this is going. And then the woman drops THE BOMB.
I moved forward in my seat as her ordinary tale of an ordinary life stops being ordinary in light of the bomb, though it continues in its ordinariness as the stresses of life take their toll. Until the bomb explodes and I drop my head and cover my ears because I can’t bear to hear what she is saying.
She finishes with a comment that the purpose of society is to protect us from men. The curtain falls and the audience is on its collective feet, thunderous applause. And then quiet as we shuffle out, back to the lobby, where it’s noisy and bright and… ordinary. Nice, safe, ordinary.
And I understand why this play has been so acclaimed. It removes toxic masculinity from the culture war and places it where it lives – in the lives of ordinary people. At one point the woman reminds us that she is telling the story, it’s her perspective. Apart from a few quotes, we don’t hear the male perspective. But… the play was written by a man.
This is one of the most profoundly affecting productions I’ve seen, and while the play itself is extraordinarily powerful, every aspect of the staging was flawless.
The weight of Girls & Boys falls on the shoulders of Spanish-born Beatriz Romilly and she carries it with deceptively artless grace and ease, carrying us through the range of human emotion. On stage for nearly two hours, alone. How? The very idea of memorising and then performing Girls & Boys is daunting.
Yet Eleanor Bishop, who directed and Tracy Lord Grant who designed the revolving set had equally challenging parts to play, bringing Romilly’s woman to life visually. This is no stand-up monolog. Romilly fills the space, miming interactions with her children, pacing, pondering, moving through and around the rotating set into the various rooms her memories occupy.
Kudos to the impeccable sound and lighting. Rachel Marlow and Bradley Gledhill effectively use a unique mix of lighting techniques to illustrate the mood, augmented by Te Ahi Butler’s filmically eerie soundscape.
The play comes with a content advisory due to its graphic descriptions of violence and psychological distress. Truly adult.
Girls & Boys is playing at the ASB Waterfront Theatre through 22 September with Accessible performances on the 20th and 22nd.
Tickets are available HERE.
Veronica McLaughlin