Review: BOY, Almeida Theatre, April 13 2016

Leo Butler brings to the stage a day in the life of an aimless, moneyless, seventeen-year-old boy with nowhere really to go. Despite this lack of action, the result is a hypnotic, moving play which lives in both the cavernous scale of London and the tiny circumnavigation of the marginalised Liam.

In this uniquely filled 75 minutes we see Liam go to the doctors, twice, flirt with a neighbour, attempt a danger wank, try to get some careers advice and buy some shopping for a drug dealer. The closest attempt to an event is the mammoth odyssey to Sports Direct, Oxford Street, with the hope of connecting with a school friend who is quick to dismiss our apathetic protagonist. Liam's failure to connect with the world is heartbreaking to watch.

Liam's world is presented with an innovative finish from the director-designer combination Sacha Wares and Miriam Buether. Audience members are sat around a moving travellator that continues round and round until the very last line. Props, scenery and even actors are placed upon it and delivered to Liam as he plods along: a bold alienating idea that contrasts well with the realism and sparseness of the text.

Despite Liam's startling isolation, the large ensemble cast come and go with a multitude of characters, deployed poignantly to create a bustling cityscape. Credit to casting director, Amy Ball, for bringing a lot of new talent to the stage, with most of this youthful cast delivering their stage debuts, including Franky Fox who plays the leading role with exquisite detail. As a character, Liam mostly echoes and agrees with others, but Franky maneuvers each bumble and backtrack with a natural sensibility which many more experienced would struggle to deliver.

Boy acutely highlights the vast abyss facing many young people not in education or employment. But instead of forcing this concept into a traditional narrative, Butler lets it live in the theatrical unknown, not dissimilar to the landscape of Beckett. This defiance of form, paired with stylised delivery, creates a theatrical event that is enough to carry the blank space. What's left? A blank space for answers. Something to think about, I think.

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