Shannon Molloy’s Fourteen transports the audience back to being early teen years

The Queensland-based play takes a dive into the life of a closeted gay boy growing up in a hostile central Queensland school.

There’s no place like Yeppoon in the 90s. Actually, there’s probably plenty.

Fourteen is the stage adaptation of Shannon Molloy’s book about his own experience growing up gay in an all boys school in central Queensland.

And although there’s an understanding of where and which school he attended, the overarching theme is a very universal experience that most young gay kids would have felt all around the world.

The play transports the audience back to that innocence, confusion and feeling of “foreverness” that comes with the early teen years.

This comes to the surface from Shannon’s lack of knowledge about the word “bisexual” to the guilt he feels for his confusing sexual awakening that happened against his will.

It’s sweet and it’ll have you giggling, but it’s also terribly raw and, at times, enough to put a lump in your throat.

Mitchell Bourke & Conor Leach.

Despite the small cast, you don’t get confused by the chopping and changing of roles, and you’ll find yourself despising an actor in one outfit and adoring him in another.

But there are stand out characters that really did have me cracking up every time they stepped on stage including Amy Ingram as the quintessential Australian 90s teen girl, Morgan, and Leon Cain as the only out-gay boy at an all boys school, Jonathan.

But Conor Leach truly was a star in the main role, as he easily convinced the audience that he was in fact just a 14 year old boy, discovering himself in a painfully hostile environment.

And while it was a story of his struggle, it was also a love story to those in his life who protected him as best they could.

The set design was innovative, with a dynamic opportunity to turn it from a preppy private school to the stock standard front veranda found in every central Queensland home – complete with a portable mozzie zapper.

Fourteen is playing at QPAC until September 17.

There were hide away doors, a spinning floor and clever lighting to foster any scene from drunken parties to tense study of religion classes.

But it was the soundtrack that captured the essence of the time with the iconic dance numbers truly washing away the trauma experienced just moments before.

Whether it was an all out routine to ‘Man, I Feel Like A Woman’ or the emotional connection built to the Spice Girls, the music encapsulated the nostalgia.

In classic Shake and Stir fashion, the performance never shied away from confronting topics, but not without the quick gag slotted in to ease the tension and remind the audience that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

From acceptance to the strength borne from pain, Fourteen teaches plenty of hard truths – the most important of which is that there’s nothing a good choreographed dance number to Shania Twain can’t fix.

Fourteen is playing at QPAC until September 17