Review: TROPHY BOYS at Space Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Barry Lenny, Tuesday 17th March 2026.

Written by Emmanuelle Mattana, who played a role herself in the earliest performances, and directed with precision by Marni Mount, Trophy Boys shows us four entitled St Imperium College boys: David, Jared, Scott, and Owen, as they prepare to face the four girls from their sister school in the Grand Finale of the annual Year 12 Interschool Debating Tournament.

They are locked away for an hour to prepare to argue that “Feminism has Failed Women”. They are distraught when they find that they are to argue for the affirmative, seeing it as a live grenade in their hands, with the ring already pulled. As we are told, the play is performed by a “female, gender non-conforming, and non-binary cast in drag”, which amplifies much of the text over and above what it might have been if played by young, straight males.

It was inspired by the 2021 case in which an unnamed schoolgirl accused then Attorney-General, Christian Porter, of raping her in 1988, when she was only 16 and he was 17. They were both in the top four debaters in Australia at the time, in a team competing in the World Universities Championships held at the University of Sydney. The case was dropped due to insufficient evidence after she took her own life.

Before seeing the topic, the four boys are certain that they will demolish, with ease, the arguments of their opponents, having been consistent winners over past debates. Now, they are not so self-assured. It is a topic so fraught with danger that Owen even suggests that they forfeit, rather than risk fallout after the debate that could impact their futures.

Myfanwy Hocking plays Owen, the scholarship boy who has his eyes set on a career in politics, and an ambition to eventually be the Prime Minister. Fran Sweeney-Nash is Jared, the charismatic soccer star, while Tahlia Jameson plays Scott, who admires Jared, although he is not as good an athlete as his idol. The group is completed by Kidaan Zelleke as David, the ‘debate advisor’, whose job is to develop strategy, but not to be one of the speakers in the debate. The casting is inspired.

It all begins hilariously, as the four claim that they support feminism, but the misogyny shows through. Jared is a feminist, he claims. He loves women. He tells us that regularly throughout the play, but that ‘love’ is more a case of “Wink, wink, Nudge, nudge. Say no more.” All four boys are a mass of contradictions.

Cheaters never prosper, and when Owen breaks the rules and opens his laptop to find a paper that he wrote that is relevant to their debate, a breaking news item throws them all into turmoil. It is announced that one of the team has been accused of sexual misconduct, but it doesn’t say which one. They are supposed to be isolated, incommunicado, but David breaks the rules for a second time, and tries to telephone his father, Paul, a lawyer.

Accusations fly as they try to ascertain which of them is guilty, threatening to evict the culprit from the team, but all four have secrets. Toxic masculinity, rape culture, male bravado, the assumed privilege of wealth and status, and the expected shelter by family and the school to preserve reputations are all brought to light.

What, at first, seemed to be a satirical black comedy deepens and darkens, becoming quickly more serious as the play develops, delving into topics that have become even more relevant with the gradual release of the Epstein files and the implications for the high and mighty.

The four performers each create a superb characterisation, while working wonderfully as an ensemble, responding to each other with an ease that convinces the audience that they have indeed spent years together through their formative time at school. They display the arrogance that comes with their status, feeling untouchable, able to avoid consequences, concerned only for their own reputations and futures. Frighteningly, they are quite possibly correct.

The design, by Ben Andrews, has the expected school desks and chairs, but the room, and the four boys, are overlooked by photographs of a number of iconic women: Rosa Parks, Madame Curie, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Julia Gillard, Penny Wong, Queen Elizabeth II, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and others. The photograph of Grace Tame is particularly relevant. The lighting design, by Katie Sfetkidis, matches the various changes in the mood.

This is a fine start to State Theatre’s year, under Artistic Director and co-CEO Petra Kalive’s leadership, and it really should be on the school curriculum in South Australia as there is much in this work that students should be discussing. The opening night audience was clearly impressed, and a crowd remained in the foyer after, discussing what they had just watched.

This should be on your ‘must see’ list so, if you have not already done so, hurry to book tickets.