Boys’ Life
Written by Howard Korder
Director Sam Shore
Producers Ema Barton and Sarah Graham
The Outfit Theatre Company
Basement Theatre, Auckland
Reviewed by Lexie Matheson, 15 Apr 2011
Published on Theatreview
Sometimes – just sometimes – a theatre experience requires reflection.
The tyranny of the immediate, informed, articulate, witty and cutting response in 200 words or less can leave the reviewer shamefaced in the morning having burbled off something that, with sober (or sombre) reflection turns out to be ill-judged. Such was my fear when trotting off home after the opening night of ‘Boy’s Life’ by Howard Korder.
Not that the production caused me any anxiety.
The Outfit Theatre Company Co-Artist Director Joel Herbert is quoted on the company’s website as stating that ‘a ‘successful’ production must be entertaining and relevant. While this was certainly the case with the former, the latter, on reflection, was somewhat less successful leading to an odd, and somewhat rare, conflict: what to do when the actors and the production are much superior to the play?
The Outfit Theatre Company are justifiably well known and well respected for their devised work, much of which has been written about on Theatreview, but this is their first foray into the world of the scripted play. They have made a cautious yet responsible choice and selected a play that hangs well on the broad and talented shoulders of the company.
Howard Korder’s ‘Boy’s Life’ is what used to be called ‘a well made play’. It has structure, tight dialogue, sound characterisation and loads of good stuff for the actors to do and say. It also has a plethora of directorial challenges that Sam Shore has admirably risen to throughout. ‘Boy’s Life’ clearly has merit as it earned Korder a 1988 Pulitzer Prize for Drama nomination.
It has the appearance of being radical and ‘out there’ in its content ~ the male rite of passage ~ but somewhere it falls short. It seems dated and more like an ‘80’s comedy of manners that an in-your-face, modern look at the male psyche and it may well be that age has caught up with it as it does with all of us. ‘Boy’s Life’ is, after all, older than some of its characters! Yes, it’s a good play but it’s not a great play. Yes, it has something to say but are we still interested? Hasn’t all that is said in ‘Boy’s Life’ been better, and more bluntly, said by Neil LaBute, David Mamet, Sam Shepard, Mark Ravenhill and Edward Albee?
That said, this is the play The Outfit chose and it’s what they’ve done with it that is outstanding.
Staged on John Parker’s minimal set, worked to maximum effect by director and actors, ‘Boy’s Life’, unfolds in all its sleazy, dirty sock glory. We are told that ‘a man by any other name would still smell’ and we are left in little doubt that this is true. This is smellovision at its most masculine. It’s also dialogue made rippingly real and shown at its scintillating best.
The men (Pete Coates, Joel Herbert, Andrew Ford and Devlin Bishop) give an object lesson to all actors in how to own a script. The dialogue races along, every word heard with clarity, accents true and maintained and Korder’s slim narrative is eaten alive and spat out with a passion and simplicity that is quite rare. This is very good stuff indeed.
Characters were also clearly delineated without cliche or apology. These were not nasty guys being played by nice actors, these were simply what they appeared to be – guys living an ‘80’s life – and this was truly refreshing. Characters built and embodied with this degree of subtlety is outstanding.
The women (Nicole Jorgensen, Toni Rowe, Jacqui Nauman, Sarah Graham and Ema Barton) are less important than the men in the grand scheme of Korder’s play but no less so in Sam Shore’s excellent production where they teeter and totter like pretty playthings but devilishly serve the requirements of the text with no less skill than the men. In the hands of these excellent craftsmen and women the dialogue sings and Korder’s witty text comes to life in the best way imaginable.
Impressive?
Sure was!
It’s worth suggesting at this point that, if the tools used by an ensemble-based company to make a devised work can be so successfully applied to a text, then this is a production model that might well be used by others to similar effect.
On reflection this is an excellent production.
The Outfit prides itself on being an ensemble and well they might. I’m honouring this by not singling out any actor for special praise but honouring instead their uniform commitment to the concept. The concept of ensemble is at the heart of all exceptional theatre creation and there are elements of this production which are quite exceptional: the acting, the way the text is owned, the relationship between text and physical action, all of which are flawless.
The set has that wonderful Parkeresque balance of deliciousness and practicality and the evening was playful and fun. It’s to the considerable credit of director and actors that the end of the play worked so well, leaving the sizeable audience to balance the seesaw of male hedonism against the pragmatism of heterosexual survival as they exited to a crisp autumnal Auckland night.
If you like excellent theatre with fine acting ‘Boy’s Life’ is thoroughly worth a visit and if you like ensemble playing it doesn’t get much better than this.
dykiegirl 