Review: Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Girls & Boys cements itself as an eye-opening work that should be seen by all, writes Samantha Cheong.
You could hear a pen drop inside the ASB Waterfront Theatre during the final act of Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Girls & Boys.
I don’t mean pin, I mean pen. It serves as the only prop in the London-import’s current debut season in Aotearoa, and as a symbol of ownership.
Acclaimed actress Beatriz Romilly portrays a nameless woman as full of potential as she is with secrets.
Her character pockets the pen in the middle of the show, as she describes another woman’s claim to freedom and motherhood against an overbearing company.
Directed by Eleanor Bishop and written by British Tony-Award winner Dennis Kelly, we watch as the woman re-enacts and reflects upon big to everyday moments in her life, all the while harbouring knowledge that she knows will shock us.
Whoever wields the figurative pen, gets to tell the story, right? I believe this story had to be told from a female perspective.
Bishop herself writes in the show programme about the “tectonic forces” of gender in society.
She directs Girls & Boys to slowly shift a comedic presentation of a lively woman towards the sobering reality of a Greek tragedy.
Romilly powerfully portrays a nameless woman who is brashly funny, ambitious and resilient.
The character thinks a lot about the fundamental role violence takes in the creation of society.
Scenes from her life help us centre her as a strong and empathetic mother, an adult with a hedonistic youth, and a female in a flawed society.
For a show about the way “sub-zero tedium” can snake its way into married life, there was never a moment that verged on such.
Audience attention did not waver in the 90-minute production.
The breathtaking, rotational set by Tracy Grant Lord bursts with spatial imagination through seamless lighting by Rachel Marlow and Bradley Gledhill.
Perhaps, the cyclical nature of the set reflects how stuck the character initially feels in her trauma.
Despite remaining nameless throughout the play, the woman feels like she could be any person from over half of the population.
“You can see yourself in it,” Bishop said to Romilly in their Backstage Pass podcast.
The undeniable setting of a mother and her two children is masterfully acted by Romilly.
As a motion-capture artist, Romilly’s attention to her physicality and the scene beats most shine through in the scenes with her characters’ children.
Leanne and Danny’s personalities and physical antics are entirely vivid to us, as Romilly reacts to them with committed attention and miming directed by Barnie Duncan.
The children pose as two sides of the same coin, tethered together in their upbringing but distinct in their familial roles.
One breaks the items their sibling takes pride in fashioning, vying for control over maternal attention.
Scenes like this, where the woman remembers her parenting struggles or victories, reinforce the scary idea of just how influential gender politics can be.
Acclaimed actress Beatriz Romilly powerfully portrays a nameless woman who is brashly funny, ambitious and resilient. (Source: Other)
Control, the play seems to say, is masculinity defined.
Having never dropped the pen, figuratively and literally, our storyteller ultimately spins a tale of female fortitude amidst her sobering warnings about the extremes of gender politics.
The play leaves me hoping that the dreams of our boys and men are nothing but peaceful for the sake of our women and the whole of society.
The production cements itself as an eye-opening work that people of all genders need to see — because the reality of domestic violence and the incredible craft of this show is, and should be, hard to look away from.
Auckland Theatre Company’s production of Girls & Boys deftly wields a pen to mark a story that has never been seen in New Zealand before — and one that I won’t be able to forget.
Girls & Boys wraps up at the ASB Waterfront Theatre on Sunday. Visit the Auckland Theatre Company’s website to book.
