According to ABC news, on the 2023 AFL Grand Final weekend there was a 30–40% increase in demand for domestic violence support services and Victoria Police reported a 20% increase in domestic violence.
This happens every year. It happens with other sports ball events. It happens in other countries. But it is happening in Melbourne today. And I’m still watching the game. I like the passion, face painting and unknown ending.
Bad Boy is about Will. He’s not a big man, but he’s got his moves and a tight fist. And he loves women. Director Susie Dee, writer Patricia Cornelius and performer Nicci Wilks are the co-creators of Bad Boy. It’s the successor to their astonishing and powerful 2021 Runt, about a forgotten and abused woman.
Wilks is Will. He’s first seen in white make up, like a bad guy in a black and white silent film, and lists all of the things he loves about women’s bodies. It’s eye-rolling funny; the comedy villain with a moustache who will never get what he wants because the world is fair and he’s all talk and no action.
Then he takes off the make up and it’s easy to forget that it’s a female playing him. Wilk’s physicality is comfortable and easy and, while Will’s dance moves and strutting let us laugh, there’s no doubt that even a small man has a lot of physical power.
This is a female perspective of trying to understand – no, not trying to understand; trying to explore and explain how women see men like this. Or how women see men.
When Will has a steak – shaped like Australia – with Lisa, he describes the curve of her breasts and the tightness of her pale blue dress. We don’t know more about her. But he’s in love and their song is When a man loves woman. Surely that’s romantic? He’s a bad boy after all, and don’t women love bad boys?
He soon wants to know where she is, changes his opinion about her tight clothes, and eventually tells their children that Mummy isn’t angry at them.
Will had a shitty dad; it’s not his fault. He’s self aware but not enough to leave hope that this relationship isn’t going to result in violence. The signs are there. All the signs that we can see, Lisa can’t see. Or choses not to. She might love him; it’s hard to know.
Who hasn’t asked why women don’t leave relationships when we hear these stories? And we hear these stories EVERY DAY. We read them in the news. We hear them from our friends. Don’t do the not-all-men thing because in Australia 87% of homicides are committed by men and 75% of reported domestic violence is committed by men. Few of them signal with villain moustaches.
Along with Dee, Cornelius and Wilkes is the design team of Romanie Harper (set and costume), Jenny Hector (lighting) and Kelly Ryall (sound), who also designed Runt.
Harper again puts the single character in a circle, but while Runt was on the ground and surrounded by her audience, Bad Boy is raised on a platform to perform. He’s the Vitruvian Man reaching to edges of the circle. He’s every man, but not someone you’d look twice at in the street. And behind him is a huge brick wall because there’s no escape.
Hector’s lighting is extraordinary and impossible to separate from the design and performance. Will is in spotlights, song lyrics circle above him in red LED lights, the platform looks like the sun in an eclipse, and huge multiple shadows let us see how big this small man can be.
Ryall’s sound design follows the popular songs we sing and wonder if they are creepy or romantic. They are heard through a speaker that Will has on stage with him because he always performing.
Bad Boy is confronting and frightening to watch. Not because of its content – again, we can see this in the news every day – but because we laugh with Will. He’s confiding in us like mates. We, maybe, like him or think he’s hot or know why Lisa had dinner with him. No one told him to stop or confronted him about how he talks about women. And no one was there to help Lisa.
Dee, Cornelius, Wilkes, Harper, Hector and Ryall make extraordinary theatre. Bad Boy is part of the Melbourne Fringe (which opens next week), but you can get in early and have time to see all of the other incredible independent theatre in this festival. Or get in early in case you want to see it again.
Meanwhile, the Swans are being slaughtered by the Lions. It’s the third quarter and there’s no hope as the commentators talk about getting KEGS of beer – because that’s how we commiserate or celebrate in Australia. And right now, there are women and children who are scared because of how the men in their lives will commiserate or celebrate.
BAD BOY
fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane, Melbourne
Performance: Friday 27 September 2024
Season continues to 13 October 2024
Information and Bookings: www.fortyfivedownstairs.com
Image: Nicci Wilks in BAD BOY – photo by George Jefford
Review: Anne-Marie Peard