Girls & Boys | Adelaide Festival 2022 review

Justine Clarke’s luminous performance in Girls & Boys makes it a powerhouse, edgy production not to be missed.

Justine Clarke in Girls & Boys, by State Theatre Company SA. Picture: Sam Roberts

Girls & Boys – State Theatre Company

Theatre

ADELAIDE FESTIVAL

Odeon Theatre, Norwood

Until March 12

Justine Clarke’s luminous, epic, performance as a working-class woman juggling a family and a growing successful career will live long in the memory.

For two hours she commands the stage alone, bringing humour and pathos to a brilliant if flawed script by British playwright Dennis Kelly, who wrote Matilda The Musical among many award-winning works.

First performed at the Royal Court in London four years ago with Carey Mulligan in the role, Girls & Boys has the simple premise of girl meets boy in Naples airport, then builds slowly to evoke the Ancient Greek dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

The couple, curiously but intentionally never named, fall passionately in love. Everything is great, especially the sex, but inevitably the demands of two children and diverging careers create tension, division and disintegration.

Justine Clarke in Girls & Boys, by State Theatre Company SA. Picture: Sam Roberts

Clarke, on a beautifully designed, stylish, smart set, is a powerhouse: Warm and engaging and funny and emotional, as she presents what is effectively a confessional.

But, as her character points out, “I am, of course, just giving you one side” – and while we don’t doubt her gripping story, that fact alone create holes in the presentation.

Cleverly constructed scenes with the couple’s children, a girl, Leanne (sensitive and constructive) and a boy, Danny (devilish and destructive) are particularly revealing as we reel to an ending that is not unexpected but delivers more than one breathtaking punch.

Presented by the State Theatre Company South Australia and intelligently directed by artistic director Mitchell Butel, Girls & Boys is a stellar, edgy production not to be missed – no wonder it’s selling out fast.