Using The Boys as a channel for theatre and gender discussion

Posted on 14 April, 2022

At a time when gender politics has become an overriding social, political and personal issue in Australia, Canberra performer Amy Kowalczuk believes that using theatre to spark and guide public discourse can help make a difference.

Amy is using Gordon Graham’s confronting work The Boys as the perfect tool to explore theatre’s capacity to deepen the discussion on gendered violence. The Boys focuses on the effect of damaging gender narratives, the transition from boyhood to manhood (particularly in low socioeconomic environments) and the internalised misogyny that appears to be attributed to gendered violence. So determined is she to consider the dramatic work against the current storm of debate, Amy has created her own theatre company, Alchemy Artistic, to do it.

Alchemy Artistic will present the work as the first offering for the Hub Too Initiative (an in-kind mentorship program) with Canberra’s newest  independent venue, Australian Capital Theatre Hub in Kingston for a five-night run in April.

ACT Hub director Karen Vickery said the production was “a fresh and relevant take on a vexed current issue in our society”.

Indy Scarletti, Liz St Clair Long, Meaghan Stewart, and Caitlin Baker. All images by Mark Actually.

Running a company is a new direction for Amy, who is a local multidisciplinary artist with a 25-year career in acting, puppeteering, musical theatre, directing and design. She has been involved in over 70 professional and community-based productions in Canberra, while also working at Questacon, The Starlight Children’s Foundation, touring interstate with NIDA and performing at the Princess Grace Theatre for the 2017 Mondial du Theatre in Monaco. But she is grabbing the opportunity with both hands.

“I have taken a leap of faith by both producing and directing the work, because my mission is to showcase works that specifically touch on societal issues and provide well-facilitated space for discourse. This is what makes Alchemy’s mission totally unique for our local landscape”.

Amy (a performing arts teacher by day) is currently completing her Master of Theatre and Performance with the University of New England and is writing her dissertation on her blended directorial method for The Boys, which is her attempt to make theatre with narratives of trauma more accessible, irrespective of lived experience. She believes that this is how we can make a difference to gendered violence. By facilitating spaces for art and discourse to work in tandem.

To that end, Alchemy’s five-night run of The Boys also offering Questions and Answer sessions post all five shows which will feed into Amy’s research. Two of these Q&A’s are gender specific, as part of a commitment to create safe spaces for both men and women to ruminate on the issues—separately.

“This offering of The Boys is purposefully situated in 2022. Gendered violence is an all too regular occurrence in our country and it has long lasting, dire consequences, which in some cases, are sadly irreversible. I am deeply passionate about encouraging discourse and creating theatrical spaces that serve this mission.”

The show runs until Saturday 16 April with tonight, Thursday 14 April, hosting the adjacent post-show Q&A for female-identifying audience members and tomorrow, Friday 15 April, the Q&A for the male-identifying.

“All genders welcome to attend the work whenever they wish, but we will commit to these two separate spaces for the Q&A after these shows. Non-binary, Gender Queer and Queer audience members invited to participate in whichever Q&A they feel more comfortable in.

Alchemy Artistic founder Amy Kowalczuk

“We are under no illusion that gendered issues affect us all, regardless of our gender identity and we want all of our audience members to attend where they feel empowered to reflect”.

The sessions  will be live graphic scribed by local artist/actor Arran McKenna.

The work is traditionally extremely confronting, with Gordon Graham saying The Boys was an attempt to understand the 1986 gang rape and murder of Anita Cobby. Three of the men charged were the Murphy brothers, who the fictionalised Sprague brothers of The Boys inspired. The lead role was played by David Wenham in 1998 opposite Toni Collette which won an AUGIE and four AFI awards.

But, according to Amy, the realism traditionally applied to this powerful work, likely has unintended consequences. “Our uphill battle in selling this work, is that people remember the case and the original offering of The Boys so viscerally. Our interpretation works towards a feminist application, with physical theatre and other theatrical techniques (designed to provide space for reflection), in order to make this work accessible. So trust me when I say; this is not the work as you know it.”

The work has never been performed in Canberra and Amy is hopeful that audience members will see the production not only for its theatrical value, but as a chance to engage in higher-level conversation following each performance.

“We are excited to discuss the themes and the work alongside our audiences. We have been working hard, despite the challenges of COVID, collaboratively fuelled by the importance of this issue. To debrief and discuss collectively post show is not the standard. But we feel it imperative in enacting our mission statement ‘Theatre that speaks, theatre that listens’.”

“Goodness knows that art is what we need right now. By supporting the art at ACT Hub, you support a conglomerate of artists, across a variety of companies and disciplines, all working towards a common goal—a true hub of theatrical activity in the capital. Supporting artists with missions like Alchemy Artistic’s will also simultaneously serve a deeper community minded purpose. And you can do the whole thing for under $40 (leaving you some disposable cash for the locally stocked bar- the Hub Pub).”