The Boys

The play has several flashbacks and flash-forwards, with the time frame being a little confusing, but overall, this helps to strengthen the tension and give more depth to the story. This review gives part of the story in continuous time.

         On his release from jail, after having spent a lonely year practically without a single visitor, brother Glenn (David Gregory) picks up cold psychopath Brett Sprague (Murray Jackson). Brett discovers that things at home are not as they used to be. We watch as, over the following twenty-four hours, he regains his influence on his younger brothers.
Brett attempts to resume the position of the dominant male in the household. His girlfriend, strong streetwise, Michelle (Julia Hern), assumes that he will be desperate for sex, but he accuses her of cheating on him, hiding his inability to perform. Brett is left with a need to prove himself as a man.
         The arguments start and long-suffering mother, Sandra (Val Riches), tries to keep the peace. She still continues to think that the sun shines from the boys’ backsides. All of the women struggle to make things work as a family, but when the boys are together their efforts are futile.
          After hours of drinking and arguing, the boys set off for more grog and wander the streets.
        Later we learn that a girl at a bus stop has been brutally raped and murdered. 
        Brett is very jealous of his middle brother Glenn, who has bettered himself by getting a job and is very happy with his powerful, organised and respectable fiancée, Jackie (Leah Maher) who is trying to get Glenn away from the bad influence of his home. Brett takes objection to her attitude, after all blood is thicker than water.
         Younger brother, gullible Stevie (David Bruce) and his pregnant girlfriend, Nola (Krysia Wiechecki) have been sleeping in Brett’s room. The slightly simple and withdrawn Nola is petrified of Brett, who constantly terrorises her. When she tells Stevie that she is afraid, he says good riddance and tries to kick her out.
         The mother and girlfriends feel vulnerable. Then the police arrive to arrest the ‘usual suspects’. Some of the women are shattered and, through misguided loyalty, compromise their lives for the boys. The other women are relieved they have gone.
         Did the boys really carry out the murder? Will Nola’s baby be born? What will be the result of the boys’ trial?

This play is a character study and tense psychological drama, about the lead up to violence and the meaningless behaviour of the gang mentality. As a result of a violent act, who are the real victims? The murdered, the perpetrators, or the loved ones left behind?

Whilst being a good solid story, there are numerous themes and storylines missing from the original book. Topics which helped explain the moods and attitudes of the boys. Gone are two central characters, George, Sandra’s Aboriginal boyfriend, and the bottle shop owner. What happened to Brett’s stash, his coffee table, and the Michelle’s suspected reason for Brett’s impotence? A pity the play was thinned out.

The demands on the cast were huge, but they were all magnificent, with Krysia and Leah being exceptional. Through superb direction (Dannielle Ashton, aided by Molly Sheehan), every cast member saw the requirements of their very different characters, and then conquered them body and soul.

Rarely do I list stage crew, but Joy Harvey, Katie MacCuish, Shelley Ormerod, Ryan Kristensen, David Wallace and Hayley Lauterbach under the supervision of Rowan Mitchell worked their guts out. The set went through several major changes, involving heavy flats and props (Angela Sullen). The team moved in and within seconds the cleverly designed set (Hywel Williams and Phil Barnett) was converted.

There is a warning that the play is confronting, however it is not brutal - there is no violence seen, but plenty inferred. Because of the superb acting you will squirm, and really feel for the women.
I kept thinking of the old expression, ‘There is a special place in heaven for a mother of three sons.’

Yes it is psychologically gruelling, but it is still most definitely worth going to experience the life of this family. Real quality.