Uniquely conceived and sharply executed, Boys on the Verge of Tears takes the audience on a gripping ride through boyhood and beyond.
Winner of the 2022 Verity Bargate Award for new writing, Boys on the Verge of Tears enjoyed a premiere season at groundbreaking Soho Theatre, London last year.
Playwright Sam Grabiner crafts a seamlessly flowing series of vignettes that cast light on the foibles and tribulations of young men. Gifted not just with an ear for completely natural banter, Grabiner delves further by exploring the unfettered conversations that boys and young men have when no-one else is around.
Following a natural timeline through life, the first boy on the verge of tears is a young lad using a public toilet cubicle for the first time while his anxious father coaches him from outside the door. The focus moves along through a primary school disco, a high school toilet, and night club toilets, before eventually coming full circle when a young man supports his anxious stepfather through the change of his colostomy bag.
Grabiner contrasts boys’ tendency to tear each other down with their potential for stolid support of each other. Attitudes towards sex are a running theme, with the supreme importance placed upon the act by high school boys later complemented by an older man’s reflection on the joy of real intimacy. Interspersed with compelling monologues, the scenes including abundant laughs along with well judged moving moments.
Working with a tight ensemble of five actors playing nearly 50 roles, director Keegan Bragg imbues the work with infectious energy. Extremely well prepared, the actors bounce off each other as if they are months into a long run; the work, at times, even having a feel as though it is being improvised spontaneously before our eyes.
Part of the thorough preparation is the first rate work with English accents. Although the concepts are universal, numerous references require the play to be set in London. Local audiences may struggle to place drag queens based on Maureen Lipman and Vanessa Feltz, but that is just all part of the fun.
The most serious centrepiece of the action is an extended sequence in which a young man suffers a racially motivated attack. Bragg’s respectful direction brings the necessary gravitas to this scene, which includes the attack itself and then the responses of others to the injured man, before diving into the play’s only surreal episode when the drug-affected man envisions a deeply unsettling visit from the red-masked Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Set designer Ben Andrews crafts an extraordinarily realistic setting of five cubicles, urinal, and central basin with actual running water. Brunswick green cubicle doors are framed by green and white subway tiles, all realistically smeared with years of grime and graffiti from scenic artist Louisa Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald also serves as costume designer, providing a cavalcade of distinctive looks, which presumably have to be very easy to change quickly. Thanks to Fitzgerald’s witty work, there are additional laughs to be had in a number of the costumes.
Lighting designer Georgie Wolfe brings variety to the single setting, vividly conjuring the location of the toilets through atmospheric lighting, also drawing in the focus for key tense moments. Tension and atmosphere are also supported by sound designer and composer Ethan Hunter, who adds a haunting soundtrack to the acoustic dialogue performances.
The well balanced cast of players works together as an exceptionally tight team.
Karl Richmond earns early laughs as a game primary school lad, later strutting with natural camp flair as “Maureen Lipman.”
First seen as a tiger (!), Damon Baudin has the perfect boyish persona to convincingly play a range of troubled young men.
Ben Walter commandingly conveys the self important intensity of young men, deftly flipping from comedy to tears in the blink of an eye.
Akeel Purmanund is most affecting as the bashing victim, keenly portraying the tumult of conflicting emotions experienced in the aftermath.
Justin Hosking brings the play to a moving close with great dignity as the older man with the colostomy bag.
Boys on the Verge of Tears plays at fortyfivedownstairs, Melbourne until 30 March 2025. For tickets, click here.
Photos: Ben Andrews