Review by Alex Eichholz . . .
With Emmanuelle Mattana’s new play Trophy Boys, Danya Taymor once again cements herself as a whisperer for the Gen Z voice in theatre. Fresh off the directing successes of Broadway’s The Outsiders and John Proctor is the Villain, Taymor has returned this time to her off-Broadway roots at MCC’s Susan and Ronald Frankel Theatre. Trophy Boys tells the story of a team from an all-boys school who are preparing in real time for the final debate of their high school careers. Their position: to argue that feminism has failed women. Expertly performed by a cast of AFAB performers, Trophy Boys swirls sharp satire with exploration of male privilege to create a tension-filled seventy-five-minute attention-getter.
Mattana shines as both author and actor in this production. They begin the show by creating a space that feels knowable and comfortable, elevated by Matt Saunders’ excellent scenic design. Entering the already intimate theatre, the high school classroom that greets you is immediately familiar. Personally, it brought up memories of “my classrooms looked just like this,” and “I remember crazy conversations at those tables,” resulting in being dropped into the action before anything even happens. As the story twists, the safe ground upon which its characters walk crumbles, and what occurs onstage demands that the audience take responsibility. This mostly works with the dialogue, sparkling and cutting in subtle ways, but a few moments feel somewhat misplaced. For reasons that don’t make a great deal of sense, the fourth wall is broken on occasion with the actors speaking directly to the audience, with everything from sly looks outward to lighting cues as signals. At one point, Mattana’s character of Owen says. “But also, I really don’t want to be talking about hairy vulvas with my grandma in the audience,” followed by a slight wave in our direction (wink-wink). By my count this only happens on four occasions and, while not totally inappropriate for the comedy style of the play, the lack of consistency makes it difficult to determine how these breaks fit into the storytelling.
Working in detailed collaboration with one another, the four actors hone into the nuance and unique aspects of the teenage boys they portray, each with specific traits, though none are played by male-representing actors. Louisa Jacobson exudes frat boy charisma as Jared; Esco Jouléy radiates lovable, yet blind masculinity as Scott; Terry Hu charms as the somewhat sociopathic David, and Emmanuelle Mattana’s Owen schemes deliciously as the mastermind president of the debate team. The boys seemingly represent four different archetypes of privileged young men, but to Mattana’s credit, there’s much more to them than meets the eye. The play’s heavy emotions are filled out by vibrant movement that has been coordinated by Tilly Evans-Kruger, allowing for a kinetic way into their stories lurking beneath the surface. Their sprit is in evidence near the top of the play when the boys’ energy hits a height higher than mere words will suffice as they dance and hump to Pretty Ricky’s 2005 classic “Grind with Me” (the excellent sound design is by Fan Zhang). In exploring their sense of community, inevitable horniness, and the doubts each are experiencing sexually but fail to speak on, the play virtually explodes in stylized and choreographed movement. In one striking instance, Jared hugs Scott from behind somewhat tenderly, though masked by the vague sincerity of “bros supporting bros” forced upon the interaction. This mix of soft and hard in a brief display of affection invokes how guarded society has taught them to be; a dichotomy that becomes increasingly evident throughout the play’s plot machinations which force them to go to extreme lengths to cover for each other. With this fear of genuine intimacy as a through line and connecting to a hard topic representative of the real world by way of their debate, their actions effectively peel away at what is underneath.
The “boys” of the show’s title are a vital part of the reckoning of adolescence on display; curiosity, caution, naivety, earnestness, and excitement that are bursting out of the minds of these eighteen-year-olds. In the end, it is to the supreme credit of Emmanuelle Mattana, Danya Taymor, and the quartet of actors that Trophy Boys winds up a real winner.
Trophy Boys is playing now through July 27th at the MCC Theater, 511 W 57th Street, NYC. For ticket information, please visit: https://mcctheater.org/tix/trophy-boys/
Photos by Valerie Terranova.
Headline Photo: Terry Hu, Louisa Jacobson, Emmanuelle Mattana, and Esco Jouléy.
