State Theatre of SA with Soft Tread Production in association with the Maye Pile. Space Theatre. 17 Mar 2026
This production rolls into town after successful runs around the country. For our happiness, two of its original. Melbourne cast have been supplanted by Adelaide-born actors - and jolly good they are, too.
Trophy Boys is a theatrical romp: fast, funny, and packed with rapid-fire socio-political substance. It follows four Year 12 boys at the prestigious (and gloriously named) St Imperium School, holed up in detention in the hour before an intercollegiate debate against their sister school. The twist is that the boys are played by girls. It’s drag — and it’s central to the show’s punch.
Playwright Emmanuelle Mattana has managed to blend slapstick humour with very serious subject matter. The twist is the gender bender.
In the opening stretch, the “boys” lock eyes with the audience, ham it up, and go to town with pelvic thrusts and raucous little dance breaks. They are vulgar and cocky. It quickly becomes clear they also are breathtakingly entitled — and expect little opposition from the girls’ team.
The debate topic — the status of feminism — gets both airtime and a send-up amid the rants and shtick. The set underlines the point with sledgehammer subtlety: huge portraits of famous women (Queen Elizabeth II, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jacinda Ardern) loom over large desks, chairs and a whiteboard. Everything is larger than life, like the characters and the show itself.
The acting is terrific. These are nasty boys who see themselves as future leaders: horny, hypocritical, loudmouthed. They’re also opportunistic weasels, and when the narrative turns darker and an ominous threat surfaces, their true colours show.
The play runs the emotional gamut and, under Marni Mount’s snappy direction, it does so at breakneck speed. It’s only 70 minutes long — though opening night was longer, after a rather whopping 15-minute late start.
Just when you begin to feel sympathy for one of them, there’s a catch; you leave the theatre admiring the character work while liking none of the characters. That’s oddly refreshing.
A well-lubricated young opening-night audience seemed to thrive on both the revue-like antics and the overall didacticism.
This is the sort of daring theatrical playground which promises to draw a that fresh demographic through the door, and that’s a good thing — and it’s also wonderful to see a crowd having fun while performers so skilfully stretch binaries.
There’s no star; it’s an ensemble. Myfanwy Hocking is superbly committed as Owen, the smart scholarship kid — though, by the end of the day, he’s smarter than he is kind. Tahlia Jameson provides a sharp contrast as Scott, living behind a butch veneer. Kidaan Zelleke, as the debate supervisor (not a team member), punctures the prize of privilege with a moving scene about the dubious joys of extreme wealth. Fran Sweeney-Nash plays the audience like a proverbial instrument as Jared, the athletic, uber-straight lad: a lovely comic talent, and the direction lets them shine.
Would this play work if boys were playing boys? It’s an interesting question — probably not. The girls have it. And even if, structurally, it’s essentially an extended revue sketch, it remains provocative, funny, and disgracefully wholesome.
Samela Harris
When: 17 Mar to 2 Apr
Where: Space Theatre
Bookings: my.statetheatrecompany.com.au
