Theatre review: Trophy Boys
Debating drama Trophy Boys takes aim at the privileged world of all-boys private schools – and a culture of patriarchy and misogyny that reaches far beyond the classroom.
It’s the Year 12 debating Grand Final, and the boys of St Imperium College are feeling pumped. “Go the boys!” they frenetically repeat, huddled in a mass of testosterone and Lynx Africa before they set to prepare the task for the night: in one hour they’ll argue against their sister school that feminism has failed women.
Led by a chorus of “But I love women!” from charismatic Jared – who lists his mother, his sister and his girlfriend as examples – the boys struggle to come up with any valid reason why this might be the case. The smartest of the group, Owen, cites the old ‘70s argument about an absence of intersectionality, then circles around to how the girls will say it’s what feminists have been working toward ever since – all while referring to himself as a “stupid bitch” because he can’t deliver the goods. Scott, the sporty one, reminds the boys “That trophy’s dick”, meaning it’s the coolest thing in the world, so keep thinking and think hard, boys, while David informs the others of an incoming message: one of the four team members has been accused of sexual assualt, by the one of the girls they’re about to argue against. What’s more, The Guardian will run the story the morning after the debate. Much finger-pointing follows; any one of them could be guilty, making the entire team structure a petri dish for rape culture.
The premise inevitably invites comparisons to the legal saga that erupted in 2021, when then-Attorney General Christian Porter was publicly accused of a historical rape that allegedly took place at a university debating tournament in 1988. An account of the alleged assault was sent to then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison and other members of parliament in February 2021 after Porter’s accuser, who was a teenager at the time of the tournament, took her life the previous year.
Porter denied the allegations, and launched legal action against the ABC for reporting the claims before eventually resigning from parliament, but the case sparked renewed public discourse about the world of wealthy, privileged private schools whose debating teams often presented a pipeline to careers in politics. Concurrently, the activist Chanel Contos, who went to an eastern Sydney all-girls private school, began compiling stories from her classmates about their experiences of sexual assault by students from neighbouring all-boys schools. It’s clear, then, that the fictional St Imperium College of Trophy Boys could very well be one of those schools.
Written by the versatile actor and writer Emmanuelle Mattana and directed by the fresh and feisty Marni Mount, Trophy Boys is a surprisingly laugh-out-loud and gutsy take on such incredibly serious matters, and with former Adelaide Writers’ Week director Jo Dyer – who was a friend and public advocate for Porter’s late accuser – as co-producer, it’s also raw. To say the casting of four female and non-binary actors in drag is deft is an understatement. The gender-flipping experiment is brilliant and proves to be a total takedown of the deep-seeded misogyny that is patriarchy-in-puberty – the play itself loses the debate for the boys before the debate even begins. Myfanwy Hocking as Owen, Fran Sweeney-Nash as Jared and Kidaan Zelleke as David deliver in spades, while Tahlia Jameson as Scott is the standout of the group, a true comedic talent.
The mainly adult audience was the most age-inclusive one I’ve seen in years, ranging from late-teenagers to pensioners and representing the in-betweens in big numbers, and it’s wonderful to see the State Theatre allocating specific performances to schools. The generational representation no doubt played a role in the pre-show energy, which was only outdone by the post-show enthusiasm. Though we’ll never know if the boys, in the end, took home a win, it’s certain that Trophy Boys did.
Trophy Boys is playing at the Space Theatre at Adelaide Festival Centre from March 17 – April 2
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