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ABC News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
How Emmanuelle Mattana's Trophy Boys exploded from independent theatre to national tours and NYC off-Broadway
"It's bonkers," Sydney-born playwright and actor Emmanuelle Mattana says. We're sitting on a velvet banquette in the underground foyer of Melbourne's Hamer Hall, discussing the fact that her play, Trophy Boys, will open in August at the off-Broadway MCC Theatre in New York. The play explores the dark side of male privilege and power through Mattana's queer, satirical lens. It looks at how power and privilege emerge and are cultivated and defended in boys through our institutions and culture more broadly. To say those themes have resonated would be an understatement. Since its first performance at Melbourne's La Mama Theatre in 2022, Trophy Boys has been restaged at Melbourne's fortyfivedownstairs, garnered rave reviews, had a national tour, been nominated for four Green Room Awards, and won the Sydney Theatre Award for Best New Work in 2024. It's all the more impressive when you consider Mattana began writing the play, her debut, in which she also starred, in 2021, when she was just 20 years old. Set on the eve of elite all-boys school St Imperium's inter-school debating final, Trophy Boys unfolds in real time as four boys prepare for their debate against their sister school. But there are two big twists, Mattana tells ABC Arts. "One is that all the boys are played by female and non-binary performers in drag. The other is they are asked to argue that feminism has failed women." The topic sends the boys into a tailspin, threatening to shine an uncomfortable light on the hypocrisy behind their self-declared feminist views. "I'm interested in having a conversation about how masculinity is the performance and how especially young boys are taught how to perform it," Mattana says. That the show deals with serious topics, like sexual violence, in a satirical way is a balancing act, she says. "These things are really confronting, really full on. But there's a sort of wink-wink we get to do to the audience that says, 'You're safe here — this is your opportunity to laugh at the people who have done terrible things.' I think that's been really fun — it's a joy to be able to send up awful boys." Mattana began writing Trophy Boys after the historical rape allegations against former Australian attorney-general Christian Porter (which Porter denies) made headlines in 2021, pertaining to a sexual assault at an inter-school debating competition in the late-1980s. This led Mattana to reflect on her own experience as a school debater (where she first met Trophy Boys director Marni Mount), and how cultural events such as debating often intersect with privilege and societal power. "Marni and I often joked that we probably knew the future prime minister because of what we did, before realising that it maybe wasn't a very funny joke. The people we know and the things we do are this direct pipeline to power in a really tangible way," she says. Trophy Boys opened at Melbourne Arts Centre in 2024 as part of its national tour, hot on the heels of another scandal; revelations about sexist behaviour at Yarra Valley Grammar, "where boys had a spreadsheet and they talked about unrapable women," Mattana says. "Thank you so much for keeping my writing relevant," she says with her tongue firmly in cheek. As she prepares to head to New York to rework Trophy Boys for a US audience, Mattana says that, while she'd hoped otherwise, things seem to have changed for the worse. "I wrote the play about boys who, even though they held these sorts of deeply misogynistic views, knew all the right things to say. They would pretend to be feminist and woke. Now I think men more than ever are feeling emboldened and that they don't even have to put on the act anymore. "It was so bold of me to think that misogyny was just going to disappear." Since its independent theatre beginnings as part of La Mama's exploration season, Trophy Boys has been performed across Australia to a broad range of audiences. "But one of the best things was getting it included in the Victorian curriculum," Mattana says. Its inclusion in 2024, and special performances for school groups, has already sparked frank and fruitful conversations with teenagers, teachers, parents and cast members about the ways misogyny perpetuates sexual abuse and violence in this country. Mothers, especially, have asked Mattana for advice about how to debrief after the play with their sons. "It's been the mums' and kids' show," she says, proudly. The success of the play's 2024 national Australian tour caught the attention of director and producer Amy Marie Haven - the creative development manager of Michael Cassel Group. Haven will produce its forthcoming season at the MCC Theatre in New York. It will be directed by Tony-Award-winning director Danya Taymor. As well as helping adapt the show for an American audience, Mattana will reprise her role as teenage brainiac Owen alongside an all-new cast of performers, including non-binary and trans actors. "For me, it's really an exercise in finding out what is culturally the same between Australia and the US and what is different," she says. "With the sort of climate we're in now and what's happening in the US, especially to queer and trans young people, I'm hoping the show can be a sort of battle cry." With Mattana in New York, non-binary actor and writer Myfanwy Hocking has been cast in the role of Owen for the forthcoming Australian tour, directed by Mattana's longtime collaborator, Marni Mount. It's yet another sign that Mattana's show, and its influence, is ready to grow and adapt to the times. "On the one hand, I'm devastated to be saying goodbye to my little baby," Mattana says, smiling ruefully. "But I'm so excited that other people get to step into those school shoes." Trophy Boys will tour to Sydney's Carriageworks (July 23 - August 3) and Riverside Theatres (August 6-9), Arts Centre Melbourne (August 12-24) and Brisbane's QPAC (August 25-30).
Time Out
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Virginia Gay is bringing back Calamity Jane for an exclusive run at Sydney Opera House
If you had the good fortune of seeing theatremaker and all-out triple-threat Virginia Gay kick down the saloon doors and tear up the stage as Calamity Jane, then you'll immediately understand two things. Firstly, why Gay's gender-bending turn as the iconic frontierswoman is so joyously unforgettable. And secondly, you'll get why we're losing our minds over the announcement that Calamity Jane is coming back this October. 'I love the show, and I love what it does to people,' said Gay, speaking exclusively with Time Out about this exciting announcement. 'Audiences never stop asking for it – and sometimes, apparently, you should give an audience what they want!?' Packed with spontaneity and joy (and a load more queer subtext than you might expect from a show based on a real-life person who lived in America's Wild West era) this witty show sold out multiple seasons in Sydney, Melbourne and on tour after opening in 2017. The role also earned Gay the Sydney Theatre Award for Best Actress, enchanting audiences and critics alike – but stepping back into Calamity's cowboy boots is not something that she ever expected to do again. However, it was last year, when she was rehearsing a special one-off reprisal of the character for a fundraiser to celebrate ten years of the Hayes, that the spirit of 'Calam' was brought back to life. 'I said to Richard, god, you know, if I thought my knees could take it, I'd do this show again,' she said. 'And a week later, the Opera House called.' 'When we were doing the original seasons of Calam, the dream was always [to stage it in] The Studio at the Opera House, because we could convert the entire space into the Golden Garter… So when this call came a week after I said those immortal words, I was like, okay, I truly did not imagine going back to this character, but okay – one last go in the saddle,' continued Gay. Adapted from the beloved film starring Doris Day, this raucous yet intimate show should certainly scratch an itch for any theatregoers who fell in love with Gay's Boomkak Panto, which took over Belvoir St Theatre in the summer of 2021, as well as those of us holding out hope for a Sydney staging of Cyrano – Gay's gender-flipped take on the literary classic Cyrano de Bergerac, which has delighted audiences in Melbourne, Perth and abroad in London and Toronto. Collectively, Gay describes 'the lo-fi Joy explosion' of these shows as 'the confetti cannon trilogy'. 'I think both Boomkak and Cyrano were both hugely impacted by what I learned through Calamity. Like, what you can ask of an audience, and the way that you can be in liminal space. But at no point are you sacrificing the emotional truth of the characters or the weight of the twist, even while you are peppering people with jokes,' says Gay. 'That's, you know, one of the functions of laughter, to get people to take off their armor.' 'This is such a weird thing to say about a Wild West show, but I think our version of Calamity Jane is so uniquely Australian. It's got such an Australian sense of humor in it. It's got such irreverence, such mischief, it snubs its nose to authority.' This new staging of Calamity Jane will also feature an all-new cast, and Gay is excited to see what a new batch of actors will bring – but also, she's excited for the joy that an all new audience will get out of it. 'I think that joy is really important. Sometimes people think of it as as frippery, but I think actually, when the world is scary, joy is really fucking powerful, and joy that connects all sorts of audiences to a story like this is powerful. I think that is so wonderful, that a show can bring disparate generations and disparate world views together through joy. Nothing feels important in the show, but the act of joy, especially queer joy, is so valuable.' Calamity Jane is produced by One Eyed Man Productions in association with Neglected Musicals and Hayes Theatre Co. It will play exclusively at the Sydney Opera House from October 14 – November 16. Tickets start at $89+bf. Insiders presale starts 9am, Tuesday May 13; What's On presale starts 9am, Wednesday May 14; and General Public tickets are on sale from 9am on Friday, May 19. Find more info & book here.
