Three hapless 20 something men hang out in a bedroom, no longer at college but not yet ready for the world of grown-up relationships in ‘Boys’ Life’, Howard Korder’s Pulitzer Prize nominated play from 1988.
The date is significant. Although the play is set in the eighties – all legwarmers and oversize sweaters, when women were feisty and AIDS was a bogeyman no-one yet believed was real - what it really identifies is the slacker generation of the ’90s, where being a teenager into your thirties and beyond became cool and not doing anything could become your raison d’être.
Phil, Jack and Don have their drifter-dude personas challenged by the women they meet, sassy jogger Maggie (well played by Abi Unwin-Smith), serious sculptor Lisa and Jack’s long-suffering wife, Carla. Charlotte Gascoyne almost steals the show with her cameo as Don’s entertainingly neurotic one night stand.
The play is strongest on these battles of the sexes scenes, the men riven by inarticulate desire, the girls running rings around them with their self aware critiques of what they have to put up with. The all male scenes, although nicely played, feel less dramatic. The limitations of the play are those of its emotionally inarticulate male characters – there’s not enough action and, in the end, it’s not entirely clear what it has to say about this lost generation of men.
This is a very young cast, almost too young for the characters they are playing (they look more like 22 than 28) but they work well together and respond to the naturalism of the lines. But the transparency of the language – so seductive in its use of everyday speech patterns - sets a trap for young actors. Played at a ‘keep it real’ level throughout, this production doesn’t quite bring out the subtext or show us the emotional highs and lows of the characters. Although it’s nicely done, this production could benefit from more energy and a sharper lens to throw the play’s soft-focus themes into relief.
