What’s a boy to do? From the playground to the classroom, from home to the uncharted waters of online, boys learn that displaying their feelings is a no-no. But what happens to emotion that can’t be let out?
Boys Don’t explored through spoken word what happened when boys show their feelings, and was written from real-life experiences of the male cast. Through a series of funny, familiar and sometimes heart-breaking stories of boys in the emotional spotlight, the show delivered insights into male experiences of growing up, and offered the possibility of more open communication for us all.
In partnership with Half Moon Theatre, and Apples and Snakes (South East), Boys Don’t featured some of the UK’s leading poets and performers in repertory, including Justin Coe, Hadiru Mahdi, Tanaka Mhishi and Steve Tasane. It was the latest work from Papertale, following on from the Suitcase Trilogy of spoken word performances about migration for young audiences, directed by Rosemary Harris.
Boys Don’t was nominated for an Offie (Off West End Award) for Best Production for Young People Aged 8+.
….better than any other thing I have ever watched. It’s good because boys don’t talk about their emotions. They are worried that people take the mickey… (Yr 7, St Leonards Academy, Hastings)
….I liked the rhyming words and the stories and even when the boy was crying everyone still liked him the way he was. It shows how boys feel… (Yr 5, Lansbury Lawrence Primary, London)
A Papertale production which toured nationally as part of Half Moon Presents.
You can access the script of this play via the British Library’s MPS Modern Playscripts Collection. This play is also listed on the National Theatre’s Black Plays Archive.
The live stream of Boys Don’t took place on Sunday 21 May 218 at The Spire, as part of the Brighton Festival – filmed and Edited in partnership with Greater Brighton Metropolitan College.
“Has the power to reach those who often feel alienated from the arts scene.”
Live Theatre UK ★★★★
“Three deeply moving monologues… Boys Don’t is a play which speaks to boys and men. But it’s not intended exclusively for them. Girls need to think about these issues too. I rather wish I’d seen it when I was in Year 5, in fact…. A poignant and very compelling piece of acting.”
Susan Elkin, Sardines Magazine
“Better than any other thing I have ever watched. It’s good because boys don’t talk about their emotions. They are worried that people take the mickey.”
Yr 7, St Leonards Academy, Hastings
“I liked the rhyming words and the stories and even when the boy was crying everyone still liked him the way he was. It shows how boys feel.”Yr 5, Lansbury Lawrence Primary, London
Live Theatre UK: Boys Don’t review, 22 March 2017
Sardines Magazine: Boys Don’t review, 24 March 2017
Go To A Show: Boys Don’t feature, 19 March 2017
Press release: Boys Don’t
Tell us a little about Boys Don’t. What’s the show about?
The show is a spoken word piece for young audiences, exploring cultural prohibitions on boys expressing their feelings, particularly around the act of crying. It also explores the mental and social cost to everyone (boys and girls alike) when boys feel they can’t fully express their feelings, and hopefully offers a different, more positive way of thinking about the issue.
What was the original inspiration for the story?
Working a lot with young people you become very aware of the gender strictures that still persist, and how keenly they are felt by young people. Boys and girls really suffer because of this, and for boys a lot of the expression of distress goes into anger, which is a major problem for schools and for our culture as a whole. As a company committed to delivering issue-based work for young audiences, we identified a real need for further exploration of the subject.
Boys Don’t was written using the real-life experiences of the cast. How much of cathartic experience was this for them?
Writing and performing together has been a rich opportunity for the male cast to engage with the bigger issues around this subject, drawing on the personal (which is so central to spoken word) and then moving into the bigger social and political discussions. Of course, the work is for young and family audiences, so the writing was also about trying to make the piece accessible, fun and above all real, to take the real-life experiences and make them speak to young people now.
The production features a diverse male cast. Did they find a common bond in their stories?
Definitely. One of the key points was for us all to examine how these ideas of what boys and men should be are often really central to cultural identity, which can be why they are so persistent and entrenched. And then although they may be culturally specific, there is also a great deal of common ground across cultures about notions of ‘manning up’ and what that entails. Finding common ground is key, not only to Boys Don’t, but to all of Papertale’s shows.
You’re working with some of the UK’s leading poets and performers. What’s that been like?
A total joy and privilege, because you are working with the full package when you work with artists who write and perform their own work. One of the real delights is in bringing a team of spoken word artists together who are open to collaboration, who are keen to collaborate, because spoken word is often a very solo activity. Casting people who are enthusiastic to share and engage with a team in developing their own work is a really thrilling process, because everybody’s work impacts on everyone else’s – and you end up with something so much greater than the sum of its parts! And of course all of these poets bring their own unique approach to language with all sorts of influences, including poetry, rap, stand up, dramatic monologue, and so you get a wonderful cornucopia of wordplay.
Why do you think boys have problems sharing their feelings?
That’s a huge question with a complex answer. We’ve been very clear that this is a feminist piece about boys and men, because one of the things people often fail to fully comprehend within our culture is that inequity damages everybody. In 2017 boys are still handed these antiquated, unhelpful, unwritten rules about what is permissible for them as human beings expressing emotion, and that has a serious effect on their mental health, with a knock on effect to the wider community.
What do you think can be done to combat this and let them express their emotions?
The issue of boys’ (and young people’s) mental health is currently being spotlighted more within the media, and it is imperative to see government funding supporting initiatives to tackle these issues. It’s incredibly helpful to see more men especially, challenging the stereotypes within their own lives and work. Seeing people like Barack Obama, David Beckham, cry on TV, these are helpful role models – and Papertale’s aim with Boys Don’t is to offer role models of male performers closer to home, exploding some of the myths, and sharing their feelings. Cultural change happens slowly and we all have a part to play. We have a responsibility to young people to offer ways out of mental distress, through accessible stories and examples that entertain as well as inform.
What can audiences look forward to?
Something engaging, current, accessible and diverse, that has humour as well as meaning, that provokes discussion and speaks to young people’s lives now. Oh yeah, and great language, rapping and poetry.
Describe the show in three words.
Real, important, entertaining.
And finally, what would you like audiences to take with them after seeing the show?
An increased understanding of the issues involved, a sense that they’ve shared some great contemporary writing and performing – plus a greater sense of shared communication around the emotions we all feel, young, old, male, female, all of us!
Rosemary Harris has developed four plays with Half Moon in the period between 2010 and 2016. Here she talks about how useful the Careers in Theatre project has been in helping her to develop new work.
Rosemary Harris describes the type of work she has been able to develop with Half Moon and why she sees it as a unique collaboration. Interviewed by Beccy Allen.