TROPHY BOYS Comes to Arts Centre Melbourne in August
Performances will run from 12 – 24 August 2025.
The queer black comedy Trophy Boys will tour nationally this year including a return to Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio for a limited season from 12 – 24 August 2025.
Set on the biggest night of the Melbourne academic calendar – the Grand Final of the Year 12 Interschool Debating Tournament – Trophy Boys follows the all-boys debate team from an elite private school as they are tasked with arguing that ‘feminism has failed women’.
Performed by a female and non-binary cast in masculine drag, the play unfolds in real time during the debate’s one-hour prep window as the riotously funny satire turns into a sharp exploration of power and privilege.
Written by Emmanuelle Mattana (ABC’s Mustangs FC) and directed by Marni Mount (POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive), Trophy Boys debuted to sold-out crowds at La Mama Theatre in 2022, followed by sold-out seasons at fortyfivedownstairs in 2023 and Arts Centre Melbourne last year.
Off the back of Trophy Boys’ success in Australia, a US. production is set to premiere later this year Off Broadway in New York, directed by Tony Award-winning Danya Taymor and Mattana as a member of the cast.
On the return season to Arts Centre Melbourne, Mattana said:
"It is an honour to be returning to the beautiful Fairfax Studio at Arts Centre Melbourne. The Trophy Boys team can’t wait to perform for Melbourne’s warm and generous audiences once again. As bad faith commentary rages on both globally and closer to home about the themes at the heart of Trophy Boys – gender, misogyny and male violence – we're proud to share theatre that is as provocative as it is funny, and a true testament to the power of bold, young, queer art.”
For the upcoming Australian tour, Leigh Lule will return as the nerdy enigma David, along with Gaby Seow as the dopey lawyer’s son Scott and Fran Sweeney-Nash as the soft-boy-jock Jared. Myfanwy Hocking will debut as the brainiac scholarship kid Owen.
Trophy Boys will tour to Sydney’s Carriageworks (23 July – 3 August) and Riverside Theatres (6 – 9 August), Arts Centre Melbourne (12 – 24 August) and Brisbane’s QPAC (25 – 30 August).
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