In Jonathan Houlston's strikingly astute and utterly gripping debut play, a school's locker room is a retreat for its pupils. Here, hypermasculinity is performed en masse, first dates are held in secret and reputation-threatening confessions are whispered cautiously.
From cliches to complexity
We first meet the boys as a pack, and collectively they play up to the tropes we've been on high alert about since the TV drama Adolescence. Banter sprinkled with “your mum” jokes flows, chat about sex reduces their female classmates to goals, and nude pictures are shared around like trophies.
But Houlston presents this montage only as a starting point, before unstitching the group and tackling the cliches. By the end, each has our sympathy. Ringleader Jason (Harry Lynn) might be a brute to the others, but he's fending off much worse at home. Joe (Houlston) proves himself sweetly inexperienced on his first date with Holly (Anna-Sophia Tutton). Two of the boys are in a hushed-up relationship with each other, terrified of being found out.
Timing and tension
Timing is pivotal: it's the last year of school and those who leave Swansea for university might not look back, splintering the set for good. Perhaps because of this, Joe is questioning his friendship with Jason, who regularly spikes his drinks and teases him about his weight. Is it banter, or something more sinister?
Things come to a head at a drunken party, and while Houlston's Swansea comprehensive students know none of the same privileges, there's an echo of Laura Wade's expertly mapped Posh to the way hierarchies within the group are challenged, loyalties are dissolved and a plan to cover their backs is hurriedly thrown together.
Production and performances
Director Richard Mylan's production for Grand Ambition has the dexterity of a show that's been running for years, not a matter of days. All seven performers, including Michelle McTernan as teacher Miss Rider, inhabit their characters with similarly well-worn familiarity. The boys bounce around Delyth Evans' locker-room set with the agility of dancers, landing punches and pulling off impressive vomiting stunts.
A cliffhanger ending leaves the door open for a second instalment this story doesn't really need. This is teen masculinity in its entirety: loud but uncertain, fragile yet primed to fight.
