Girls & Boys (Oberon Modern Plays): A Play

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The script includes a graphic rape scene, which Kelly is at pains to point out does not have to be performed verbatim on stage. I mention actor-turned-film-director Romola Garai’s recent remark that “I don’t think anybody needs to see a rape on-screen ever again”. “I totally understand that sentiment,” he says, “but I just think if you start ring-fencing areas that are out of bounds, what are we stopping in the future?” This is a drama monologue; one woman is speaking to us, to you and to me. What she is telling us is honest and true and upfront. She is speaking from her heart. The honesty is brutal. Dennis Kelly: “I sometimes think the fact violence hasn’t found a voice in me is not because I’m a great guy, but because I’m not very good at it.” Credit: Getty Images

The vast majority of murderers and sex offenders are men. We have to conclude that elements of masculinity are a problem for society. Dennis Kelly He notes, though, that this is the reason why he hasn’t allowed anyone to revive After the End in Britain for many years. “I’ve seen versions where I felt really f***ing uncomfortable, witnessing what we’re witnessing, because it feels abusive to the actor. I definitely stand by the production we did that Roxana [Silbert] directed [at the Bush Theatre in London in 2005], because I thought it was done sensitively… as someone who’s put audiences through quite a lot.” Kelly co-wrote the sitcom Pulling with Sharon Horgan (above, left) (Photo: BBC)

I'm not sure that I agree with all the conclusions that the author came to in this play. Some of it rings true, while other things are debatable. What I found absolutely brave was that Dennis Kelly had the nerve to ask those questions. The balls. Dennis Kelly’s previous work includes The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas at the Royal Court as well as the multi-award winning RSC production of Matilda the Musical. On television, he wrote Pulling on BBC 3 and most recently the six part original drama Utopiaon Channel 4. I met my husband in the queue to board an easyJet flight and I have to say I took an instant dislike to the man.”

The play was finished long before the Weinstein scandal broke, and Kelly hasn’t changed anything in response, but he sees the sexual harassment of women as part of the same problem of patriarchy and male violence. “Early drafts were much more didactic, and there were loads of statistics about sexual assault, which is about one in five women. If that happened to men it would be something we would sort out, but we don’t. For years we’ve gone, ‘Oh that’s just the way the world is, and men behave badly.’ We often don’t even talk about it. It’s just been part of the wallpaper. Maybe as a result of Weinstein and #MeToo we are at last looking at the wallpaper, and going, ‘That’s enough.’” He adds: “The truth is, I think, you can do anything as long as you do it well and with sensitivity and a sense of decency.” Book Genre: British Literature, Contemporary, Dark, Drama, European Literature, Feminism, Fiction, Plays, Short Stories, Theatre But there’s time for this story to sink it. It stays with you, just as urgent and chilling, even when you’d rather think easier, happier thoughts. I don’t remember exactly when things with us started to go properly wrong – I just remember suddenly finding myself in it.”In particular, there’s a missed opportunity to explore gender and marital competition, and the way that men’s support for their partners can turn into rage when the women become more successful. Often, that story is told from the point of view of the man, but Girls & Boys is instead seen through a wife who outpaces her husband and then finds she no longer recognizes him. That’s a fascinating subject for a play, one that has room for internal conflict, inappropriate sentiments, thematic thorniness. All of these qualities are missing from Girls & Boys. For a play that begins with the kind of laugh-out-loud raunch that viewers of Ali Wong’s recent comedy specials will find familiar, it turns out to be remarkably tame, tasteful, and all-too-appropriate when the subject matter turns weighty. Kelly’s mastery is in creating all-encompassing tone, writing a character so warm and engaging we don't think beyond the story she’s sharing. Taking a Roald Dahl-worthy combination of mischief and darkness, he gives us an account of a marriage from first encounter to final blow. In just 70 minutes, all alone on an aqua-coloured stage, Carey Mulligan takes us from ribald laughter to icy devastation. What the woman has to say in her blue-box monologues isn’t very scintillating or clever, which may lead you to wonder if the children, whom we never see, are real or imaginary. An upstage door does open and shut when we’re told the little girl is going to her bedroom. This macabre wonderment on our part makes the monologues easier to endure. The other thing that piques interest is how much the woman prefers her daughter to her son.

Review: I never read or listen to a book twice, as I'm too scared of missing out on an amazing new read and I also worry that I may not enjoy a story as much the second time round. But I remember loving this one and I couldn't remember the ending so gave it another listen, and I'm so glad I did. This is my definitely my all-time favorite free audible original. Shiels plays a gutsy, funny working-class woman who blags her way into a film industry job. She falls head-over-heels in love with a charismatic man she meets at Naples airport, marries, has two children and buys a house. The woman – she is never named – divides her time between her flourishing production company and kids who squabble over plasticine dinosaurs and the like.Look, I think I probably was at one stage,” Kelly says. “I think a lot of people could [have been]. I was a f***ing weird little kid who couldn’t connect with people. I just found alcohol and that sort of got me through.”