Trophy Boys
by Emmanuelle Mattana
The Age (2023) ★★★★★, Timeout Sydney ★★★★★, The Age (2024) ★★★★★, Timeout Melbourne ★★★★★, ATYP ★★★★★, Honi Soit ★★★★★, What Did She Think? ★★★★★, Impulse Gamer ★★★★★, Sydney Morning Herald ★★★★½, State of the Art ★★★★½
Drama Victoria: Best Performance by a Theatre Company on the 2024 VCAA VCE Drama and Theatre Studies Playlists
Greenroom Awards Nominations 2024: Best Production, Best New Writing, Best Director (Marni Mount), Best Performer (Gaby Seow)
Broadway World Australia Awards 2023: Best New Play or Musical
The Age: Best Theatre of 2023
Featured participant of VAPAC’s Showcase Victoria 2023.
Included on the 2024 VCE Theatre Studies Playlist.
The Age: Theatre to see 2024
Trophy Boys is a queer black-comedy and drag extravaganza about power, privilege and high school debating.
Written by: Emmanuelle Mattana
Directed by: Marni Mount
Stage Manager: Oliver Ross (La Mama + fortyfivedownstairs), Caitie Murphy (2024 tour)
Produced by: Ben Andrews (The Maybe Pile), Jo Dyer (Soft Tread Enterprises)
Production Design: Marni Mount, Ben Andrews, Emmanuelle Mattana
Lighting Design: Oliver Ross (La Mama + fortyfivedownstairs), Katie Sfetkidis (2024 tour)
Cast:
Owen: Emmanuelle Mattana
David: Leigh Lule
Scott: Gaby Seow
Jared: Fran Sweeney-Nash (fortyfivedownstairs + tour), Emily Joy (La Mama + cover on tour for 5 shows)
It’s the biggest night of Melbourne’s academic calendar, the Grand Finale of the Year 12 Interschool Debating Tournament, and the all-boys team from the elite St Imperium college are ready to totally annihilate their sister school – until…
Performed by a female and non-binary cast in drag, the show unfolds in real time as the boys are locked in a classroom for their one-hour prep window, and forced to argue ‘that feminism has failed women’. Aspiring future PM and brainiac scholarship kid Owen, joins soft-boy-jock, Jared, dopey lawyer’s son, Scott, and nerdy enigma, David, to come up with a case that will win them the debate - and save them from getting cancelled
But what begins as a riotously funny satire on insecure adolescent masculinity, entitlement and the ego of Australia’s next generation of politicians and power brokers, quickly turns sour when news that one of the boys has been anonymously accused of sexual assault enters the classroom.
Using queer methodologies and drag, Trophy Boys playfully and powerfully interrogates the well documented toxic masculinity, misogyny and homophobia of our ‘elite’ private boys schools. Born in response to the Porter allegations and #teachusconsent campaign, the show lays bare the pipeline from school boy, to the highest offices of power.
Debating is framed at the crux of this pipeline, an activity populated by boys clubs of notable alumni where argument is turned into sport, regardless of who gets hurt in the process. When being articulate, commanding, and able to twist logic at your own whims allows you to speak for anyone - or over anyone - there is no wonder this ethos is emblematic of a much broader cultural issue, and seeps so dangerously into other parts of these boys’ lives.
“Trust me. When have I let you down? International politics round you relied on me to know all about the complexities of Pyongyang’s internal power struggle. Technology round I knew all about the ethics of AI in sex dolls. Sports round I knew all the football players with charges of assault. And I don’t even like sport. It’s the same here. I’m on a scholarship. I’m smart. Trust me.” - Owen
2024 Tour
With Soft Tread Enterprises
Geelong Arts Centre, Seymour Centre - Sydney, Arts Centre Melbourne, Bowery Theatre - St Albans, The Art House - Wyong, Canberra Theatre Centre - June - August 2024
fortyfivedownstairs 2023 season
La Mama 2022 Season
Kind things people have said about us:
…Trophy Boys is a revelation. Catch it while you can…
…Drag at its most satirical incisive…
…It’s astonishing to see a shoestring production from young indie theatre artists so secure and artistically complete…
The Age ★★★★★
…The piece was complex, challenging and very funny…
…There have been a few large scale productions recently that have tried to tackle the uncomfortable but necessary conversation around sexual assault. Prima Facie, Anna K and Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes come to mind. But in my experience these conversations have not been handled quite as cleverly or as consciously as Trophy Boys…
...They gave so much energy; it was truly a joy to watch…
Theatre Thoughts ★★★★★
…As a teenager, it’s very rare to see anyone able to accurately represent the environment that surrounds me every day – whether that be the good parts or the bad…
ATYP ★★★★★
…This show needs to go everywhere and be seen by everyone. It should be on curriculums and in every library in the world…
…This is what theatre is about…
…Best in Fest (Midsumma)…
What Did She Think? ★★★★★
I hope this play not only tours every private boys’ school in the country but becomes mandatory viewing for politicians and parliamentary bureaucrats.