TROPHY BOYS

Let’s jump straight in: It’s the debating grand final (the Year TWELVE grand final, so no chance to reclaim glory next year, you guys). The boys of St Imperium College have one hour, a locked classroom and the following motion: “that feminism has failed women”. Oh, shit, and they’re on the affirmative?! Surely they can find a way to swing this. Emmanuelle Mattana's Trophy Boys, playing at PIP Theatre as part of Melt Festival, keeps its audience in that room with the boys as the hour slips away and they struggle to land on any consistent argument. They wander far from debate-prep territory. If you are inclined to dismiss Trophy Boys as man-hating, you’re more likely the subject of the piece than its intended audience. The play is honest, reflective and confrontational, peppered with belly laughs, and not hateful at all.

One of director Anne Pensalfini’s many talents on display in recent years has been the coronation of her own drag king, Biron Bothways. Biron appeared in the incredibly well-received DragSpeare: Drag Kings Do Shakespeare, which Pensalfini co-created with Jo Loth (voice coach on this production) and which premiered at PIP for Melt in 2024. Pensalfini and Trophy Boys are a splendid match. Her direction has clearly allowed the cast to disappear fully into the culture, values and long history of excellence of the St Imperium boys – our beloved princes and future leaders – and to revel in exposing and interrogating all of it.

The boys are played by a female and non-binary cast in drag, and I was struck by how well they straddle the fence between caricature and fully fleshed-out character, delivering just the right amount of depth to reveal a truth that triggers a laugh or a gasp. Emily Liu (Owen), Gabby Carbon (David), Stella Peterson (Scott) and Tayla Rankine (Jared) are dedicated, committed actors who probably don't consider this next note as big a triumph as I do, but I keep thinking about the head-to-toe control and physical awareness that can be demanded when women and non-binary performers play boys. The instinct to stand with our weight resting on our hips is strong in so many feminine-coded people, but this cast have expertly overridden any legacy coding that isn’t “St Imperium boy in all his pubescent glory”, and they do it with such charisma.

I think it’s rare to find so many moments of engaged silence and tension in a production that also captures such laughter from its audience. I also predict that many people will be performing and discussing Trophy Boys in the coming years, and this is your chance to see it done superbly.

Trophy Boys is playing at PIP Theatre, Milton, as part of Melt Festival until 31 October 2026.

Photos by Kris Anderson