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The Boys (Pip Theatre)

Pip Theatre

October 3 – 22

The theatre folk were out on Thursday night for opening of “The Boys” at Pip Theatre. The newest addition to Brisbane’s performing arts sector is a theatrey Milton venue too, full of quirky little nooks and crannies that are used in the staging of Gordon Graham’s powerful contemporary play. Clever staging (set and costume designer Genevieve Ganner) creates an almost theatre-in-the-round setup for presentation of this gritty Australian drama, with pockets of audience seating banks and lots of entrance and exit points to keep things moving. It does not take long for the essence of the story to be established. Three best friend brothers, Brett (Stephen Geronimos), Glenn (Samuel Valentine) and Stevie (Aidan O’Donnell) are back together when Brett returns from a year of incarceration. A family barbeque sees them gather, with their respective partners Michelle (Zoë Houghton), Jackie (Chantal Elyse) and the young, pregnant Nola, along with their mother Sandra (Pip founder Diedre Grace).

There’s a lot of expectation from the characters who all want everything to be all right, but as the oldest of the Sprague Brothers, Brett is used to being the boss of the family and things have changed while he has been inside. Firstly, he suspects that his girlfriend Michelle may have moved on. Meanwhile, Glenn has moved out and the immature Stevie is about to become a dad. As these realisations sink in, tensions flare into a drink-fuelled rampage of misogynistic anger that affects everyone around him, with some horrific consequences.

It is evident from early on that Graham’s award winning play is very well-written with lots of lines that evoke the essence of its sad realities, especially for Sandra in tragic optimism and determined belief that she has taught her boys not to mistreat women. It means that audience allegiances and empathies switch throughout the story’s unfolding. This is thanks also to the efforts of the talented cast.

Houghton is a standout, dynamic in her interpretation of Michelle’s determination to support Brett, with her and Geronimos working well together in dysfunctional dynamic. Geronimos gives an irresistible, totally committed performance as Brett, frenzied in deflection of any attempts at blame for anything and emblazoned with the crazy eyes of an incensed man. Valentine is strong as Glenn, trying to make a better life for himself but finding it so easy to fall into old dynamics and Elyse appropriately emboldens Glenn’s girlfriend Jackie in her frequent clashes with family members who resent her and her efforts to improve her life with Glenn. She gives us a determined glimmer of hope in her often speak of the most sense in face of ostracism from the especially blindly-faithful Michelle.

Cienda McNamara’s direction ensures that choreography features as a key player in the story’s telling, not just in physical interactions (of fight and intimate sorts alike), but movement around the space, especially the patio area, where characters incidentally pop open cans from seemingly never-ending eskies of beer. Ganner’s costume design also adds to the story’s authenticity and tells us much about its low economic status Australian characters.

The bleak show is a long one and it feels like it at times, especially in Act Two, when pacing appears a little more indulged as the relationships and dynamics of each couple are teased apart and everyone seems to be given a monologue. Though Act Two is about the story’s bonded female characters thrown together in crisis, more than its titular men, it is still shocking, especially in its volatile glimpse stare into toxic masculinity in all of its scariness and women’s question of the role they might have played in its development. And there is no getting away from its discomfort, which is exactly the company’s intent… as part of aiming to generate discussion and awareness by asking what has changed over the last 30 years, what hasn’t changed and what needs to change over the next 30 years with regard to domestic and family violence in Australian society.

Given its subject matter, “The Boys” comes with warnings as to its inclusion of violence, partial nudity, strong coarse language, offensive language, scenes of binge drinking/alcohol consumption, ableism, adult themes, murder, and discussion of physical and sexual violence. And the production certainly does not shy away from presentation of its confronting subject matter. It won’t be to all likings, but it aligns with not-for-profit PIP Theatre’s (which stands for Purpose in Performance) manifesto of wanting to staging work that combines powerful messages with definitive social action, and also whets theatregoers’ appetites for what the company has yet to come.