By Karyn Hodgkinson
There has been a long history of gender violence in Australia. For much of the 19th century, men far outnumbered women (in) the Australian colonies. This produced a culture that prized hyper masculinity as a national ideal. (The Conversation, July 2019)
As a young woman in Sydney in the 80s, I had a short interaction with a neighbour who was a slightly built man in his late 30s. He was having a smoke on his veranda, always in a navy singlet – the standard for working men at the time. I mentioned something that I did – I forget what. He replied proudly that if his girlfriend did the same, ‘she knows what she’d get’. He was a perpetrator of domestic violence and back then it seemed okay in some circles to boast about your violent behaviour towards your partner. His girlfriend needless to say, was a drawn, broken shell of a woman.
In 2015, the Australian federal government announced that violence against women had become a ‘national crisis’, despite widespread advances in the status of women since the 1970s. . . In Australia one woman a week is murdered by an intimate partner. . .
Playwright Patricia Cornelius’s Bad Boy depicts the descent of a man (Nicci Wilks, female actor) to domestic violence. Despite the play being from the man’s point of view it is not a heavy psychological drama – although many psychological aspects are there. There is plenty of humour – some alluding to his insecurities, which are due to his struggling self-esteem and short stature – his ‘short man syndrome’. The play gradually draws us away from the humour to the final outcomes of his abusive behaviour. We see the man’s repeated remorse and inability to change due to the metaphor of the big ‘presence’ in his psych, a ‘big man’ who seems to possess him to the point where our protagonist can’t look him ‘in the eye’ as it ‘scares’ him so. The dramatic contrasts work seamlessly to bring the play to its climax. This piece is poetic and economical, and it spares us from hearing too many excuses from this man, though reasons for his behaviour are evident – starting with his childhood. In short, Cornelius is to be congratulated for this craftsmanship.
Set Designer, Romanie Harper’s use of the confined circus-like performance space heightens the highly physical performance we see on it. It also speaks to the man’s confined world, physically and psychologically – that is, how he views the world and women. The choice of the overhead advertising lights moving around the circular space, is clever and often funny as it glibly sign posts the various stages of the man’s life. The plain brick wall backdrop alludes to Bad Boy’s no frills, narrow existence. The object in question is the speaker/boom box sitting on the circular performance space which is handled mainly at the beginning of the show – otherwise it sits there most of the time.
The outstanding sound design and compositions by Kelly Ryall eloquently support the action on stage and greatly intensify the power of the story overall. This, with Jenny Hector’s lighting design leaves one thinking about the production well after the evening concludes.
Finally, Nicci Wilks’ performance, though both physically and vocally demanding, is accomplished with much bravura. The irony of this ‘large’ (though short in stature) hyper-masculine male character played by a small female actor is not lost on us. Not a word was missed. This is a masterclass in precision, timing and diction.
Congratulations to all creatives associated with this work and to the director, Susie Dee, who brings it together so well.
Image. George Jefford
