20th - 23rd February 2013
Five bedrooms, five chairs and four boys. The Class of 2011 are about to graduate and Benny, MAck, Timp and Cam are due out of their flat. Stepoing into a world that doesn't want them, these boys start to wonder whether there's any point in getting older. How will they find the fight to make it as adults? Before all that they're going to have one hell of a party. it's hot and there'll be girls. Predict a Riot.
Fresh, moving and true to real life this play deals with problems students face on a daily basis. It questions what students have to look forward to after they finish degrees with rising unemployment levels providing no hope for the future. Twenty-somethings disillusioned and scared of what will happen when they have to leave university and become adults.
Boys
by Ella Hickson
Director's Note:
'The days you spend at university will be the best years of your life', is a phrase I feel I've heard repeated a lot over the past few years. A statement that seems to go unchallenged and taken literally leaves us university students with a rather disillusioned view of the future. This play shows that even whilst university is regarded as one long party, the party might not be all it's cracked up to be and furthermore that it can't go on forever. For graduating students it should be the best night of their lives - but it isn't.
Ella Hickson manages to navigate the theme of disillusionment of youth whilst also keeping us laughing and that is why this play is so true to real life -it is a beautiful mixture of sadness and laughter as she successfully captures the anxiety students' face about leaving university throught he stereotyped image of students partying all night long.
'What would you do if the look in some old guy's face told you that being young was as good as it ever gets?' is a line within the play that questions the future young people face in relation to what they will do when they leave university. In today's job market this question feels a particularly pertinent one to ask; as we face a future that doesn't seem to want us it can feel as if this really is as good as it's going to get. Throughout the process of 'Boys' several of the cast members had to miss a rehearsal to go to interviews for graduate schemes or to gain work experience - not one person applied for an actual job because what would be the point? It seems as though we need more and more experience to even get our foot in the door. As the character MArk sarcastically remarks when Benny says he'll get a job, 'I hear there's hundreds going' which pretty much sums up the attitude current students have about gaining employment too.
As a university student with a love of the arts and the cuts they are facing, combined with the tripled tuition fees I didn't feel like I should put on this play - I felt I had to. And I'm so glad I did because it's taught me that as long as you have the right people around you, you can all muddle on through together and keep on laughing no matter what uncertainty we face. I now know that if I still have half of these people in my life we'll be alright no matter what we're doing, and for that I'd like to thank the entire cast and crew, I wouldn't have been able to realise this without them.
Cast and Crew:
CAST
Laura – Laura Beaumont
Sophie – Aoife Boyle
Mack – Alfie Reynolds
Timp – Josh Finan
Benny – Alex Giffiths
Cam - Ollie Raggett
PRODUCTION TEAM
Director – Sarah Sharp
Stage Manager –Essie Barrow
Producer – Amy Wells
CREW
Technical Officer - Robyn Park
Lighting Designer – Tamar Saphra
Sound Designer/DJ – Chid Iheanacho
Set Designer – Sian Baxter
Costume Designer – Joe Bunce
Lighting Operator – Jack McFarlane-Shopes
Sound Operator – Amelia Jones
Photography - Sophie Careful
Trailer Cinematography - Marios Sofos
Assistant Stage Managers - Ellie Beecham, Aislinn Walsh, Jonathan Cooke
Reviews
This play by Ella Hickson must seem unnervingly close to the lives of those who make up the production team, crew and cast of this production by Sheffield University Theatre Company. It’s set in the summer of 2011, and centres on a group of young people who are living in a flat – some of whom are about to graduate, and all of whom are under thirty. The spectre of unemployment induces a sense of desperation, and for all their high spirits, they are caught in a mood of fear, alienation and despair. This is heightened by the civil unrest taking place in the streets – and which is witnessed by the group from a small window which is a telling feature of a realistically chaotic set. As the audience come in, a party is in progress – and nicely contrasts with the painful, funny, achingly believable exchanges which make up the play itself. Timp, the oldest of the flat-mates, played with magnetic flair by Josh Finan, is a drug-taking wide-boy, both charismatic and vaguely inadequate. The others, Mack (Alfie Reynolds), Benny (Alex Griffiths), Cam (Ollie Raggett), Sophie (Aoife Boyle) and Laura (Sarah Sharp, the director, understudying for Laura Beaumont) are all convincingly realized. They are not types, or caricatures, but individuals, vulnerable and slightly mysterious – as people often are in life. At the end the self-doubting Cam’s recording of himself playing the violin is strangely touching. The young women seem more grounded than the men – hence the title. It’s a challenging piece.
Alan Payne
Sheffield Telegraph, 28th February, 2013
Ella Hickson’s Boys is the latest edition to Sheffield University Theatre Company’s repertoire. The fast-paced production treated its audience to a nostalgic twist centred on the end of university. Opening in a party scene in the typical student flat shared by Benny (Alex Griffiths), Cam (Ollie Raggett), Mack (Alfie Reynolds) and Timp (Josh Finan,) the end of the student journey proves to be not just a physical transition, but an emotional one too.
Not everyone in the house is a student, however; Timp has been working in a dead-end job alongside his girlfriend Laura, played on this occasion by Director Sarah Sharp, who courageously stood in as understudy. Cam is a former child prodigy on the violin, now on the brink of international success. Sophie (Aoife Boyle) is the sixth cast member and ex-girlfriend of Benny’s dead brother.
Setting itself aside from other SutCo productions, Boys provided musical entertainment with a live DJ on stage. The energy onstage stirred up an excitement in the audience, enticing them to join in the stereotypical party behaviour.
The metaphorical build up of rubbish bags in the flat due to a refuse strike was symbolic of the mood of some of the play’s characters. There is a feeling that despite having a degree, students are destined for the rubbish tip.
The uncertainty of the future is perfectly balanced out with the brilliance of humour. The production had spectators in stitches throughout, due to the high quality of acting. Particularly and unintentionally funny was Benny’s offering of a biscuit to Cam, which fell straight on the floor.
The party-loving character of Timp was also skilfully embodied by the impressive acting of Josh Finan.
The concluding message of the play happily reflects how friendship and laughter can overcome fears of the adult world. All in all, Boys was a thoroughly enjoyable watch which was masterfully directed, produced, acted and staged.
8/10
Sophie Trew, Forge Arts, 1st March 2013
