Tim Edge’s second play addresses important themes of corporate sexism and toxic masculinity in the workplace in an intense, dramatic production.
‘One Of the Boys‘ follows Eve, who is about to become the first female CEO of her company after years of compromise and sacrifices.
New young hire Heidi however is looking to shake up the company norms, leaving Eve to contemplate her complacency in relation to her career ambition.
Edge said: “The play is a thriller, a battle of wits between two women for the soul of the company.
“The main female character is actively complicit, subverting her femininity in order to [succeed].
“It’s something that I hope will move people, and I want men to see it and change their behaviour.”
The show uses audio and visual distinctions effectively to animate the world beyond its limited studio size.
There is a static sound motif that repeats throughout the performance, becoming longer and louder throughout the performance before culminating in the play’s dénouement.
The actors move around during scene breaks in fierce dramatic movements as if they were predators who need to fight each other to survive.
One such instance has Heidi on one side and the others facing her, creating the physical distinction to show that she is not accepted as “one of the boys”.
All four actors do a great job with their characters.
Miriam Grace Edwards performs the nuances of Eve’s character well, contrasting the ambitious professional with the distraught alone woman.
Debutant Jess Gough nails the driven, determined Heidi, willing to stand up for her beliefs, no matter the consequences she may face.
The two male characters lack some nuance compared to their female counterparts, though both actors play their roles well.
Daniel Kendrick oozes sleaze as office creep Kevin, while Matt Ray Brown’s ‘The Chair’ encapsulates the ‘top dog’ of the metaphorical office food chain.
However, where I feel One of the Boys falls short is in its nuance.
Without spoilers, the ending feels very predictable from about the halfway point when a major twist is revealed.
Additionally, while there are some nuances to the characters, they all feel largely one-dimensional.
Each character falls into a sort of stereotype – the confident young person looking to make the world a better place, the older female employee who accepts misogyny to advance her own career, the office creep and the company boss who accepts and encourages impropriety.
While the actors portray these roles well, the writing could have gone further by adding some dimension to the characters.
One Of the Boys runs at the Playground Theatre until October 27.
Image credit: Craig Fuller
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