Xavier Hazard’s debut play ALL BOYS is an incredibly moving documentation of the malignant effects of patriarchy and privilege on male adolescence. Longlisted for the 2023 Griffin Award Written, Hazard reflects on his own experience of “growing up queer in a private boy’s school”. The story follows the process of being morphed into manhood at an elite Sydney school, depicted through vignettes from Year 7 to Year 12.
Together, Hazard and Director Mehhma Malhi lead a powerful creative team. Hazard achieves startling depth through his characters, with each narrative brought to life with intricate care. Despite the unsurprisingly all male cast, the production is run by women. The collaboration between those from varying experiences manifests in careful and well considered creative decisions. It is clear that this play was constructed collaboratively, sculpted by many voices. It writes against patriarchal institutions in its structural creation alone. ALL BOYS unique strength is this collective strive to achieve such brave complexity.
The cast did an excellent job at communicating the growth of their characters as they navigate institutional influences:ageing six years in two hours is no easy feat. And I was convinced by each gradual change, seeing the innocence of a 12-year-old, the angst of a year 9 and the tentative independence of graduate unfurl on stage. I was equally entranced by each stage of life depicted. Harry Stacey’s performance as Hugh was powerful as the audience witnessed the robbery of his endearing innocence and the ongoing navigation of trauma. Leon Walshe embodied the awkwardness and joy of Connor as he reclaims power over the narrative of his sexuality.
The soundscape, designed by Amy Norton, shifted between transcendent and eerie ambience. Norton assisted the expansion of such an intimate setting not only enhancing emotion, but also auditorily representing the passing of time and growing up. The set, designed by Rebecca Howarth, was necessarily sparse: simplistically representing temporal shifts despite its stagnation. The abstracted backdrop was interspersed with ancient relics from the early 2010s (iPods and all) to orient us in the recent ‘period drama’ timeframe the story is set within – the far away years of 2009-2014.
Interspersing the occasional Madonna references are the war-like chants that typify the expected, collective masculine identity of these schools. In the intimate theatre, the audience is sonically suffocated by the oppressive chants. Sound is cleverly used, vacillating dramatically between quiet reflection and great noise as the audience experiences tender private moments next to grandiose displays of manhood.
