(Please forgive the length...)

Boy Banned is a 45 minute show by a group of high school students in the Langwarrin area, calling themselves ‘Lazy Creations Group’. The five boys put together a musical comedy, about the highs and lows of a boy band.

The performance is a clear spoof of ‘Boyz R Us’, ‘Take That’, and other similar pop groups, with the lack of talent of one member causing him to be forced out of the group. Stew (played by Sean Bryan) then endeavours to get back into the band, by proving that he can gain valuable skills, like learning how to sing. Despite the band having little talent anyway, Stew is taken back into the fold, only to have the band split up a year later.

I was extremely early to the show, and was ushered into the venue before anyone else arrived. Being very accommodating, the local primary school offered the use of a small hall for the one-night season. The square room had seats along two sides of the walls, approximately 60, with curtains along the back of the other two walls. The stage was therefore comprised of a diamond-shape area in front of the seats. The stage was well used, and the set was simple: a painted backdrop to one side, with the props and minimal set pieces in front, and a projection screen on the other side.

Being a techie, I used this time to have a look around the lighting - in the rig there was (what looked like) PCs and some stubbie parcans (for non-techies, this is some basic lighting equipment). Along the floor there were four Mackies (moving lights) set out. The fluoros were also on, but I figured I was a little too early for pre-show lighting to be on. Boy, was I in for a shock.

Throughout the performance, the lighting consisted of the fluoros – flicked on and off for some ‘basic wash’ – and the Mackies. For me, this completely destroyed any sense of atmosphere, because instead of fading in and out of scenes, the lights just went on or off. The Mackies would have been a nice touch for a musical about bands (go to any gig and you’ll see some sort of moving light being used), but were sadly washed out by the fluoros. Upon talking to cast member Sean Bryan, I learned that the school didn’t have a way to properly operate the PCs and parcans in the rig, and the Mackies came free to borrow courtesy of a local church. If this were an independent fringe group, I would suggest that instead of borrowing the Mackies, to put some $30 – 50 into the budget and hire a lighting desk for the night. But these guys spent about $300 on the show overall; and for a high school student, that’s a hell of a lot of money.

The performance itself was a little hit and miss. There were some great jokes in the show, but they were mainly lost through either nervousness or bad pre-recorded footage. Nervousness of course, you can forgive. There were only ten people in the audience for opening night, and in the large room on a cold day, it was easy for the cast to get lost in the vastness of the venue. A smaller venue and a larger audience would have allowed greater audience/actor feedback, therefore getting the cast to relax and go with the flow a little easier. In fact, if the cast had relaxed a little more and had fun with the show, the comedy in the script would have been more apparent. But actually, despite a couple of lines being fluffed, the cast didn’t seem to lose focus, and powered on gallantly.

The pre-recorded footage was the performance’s greatest problem. The footage consisted of the band: some stills of them doing great spoofs on the tableaus shown on boy band CDs; some introduction of the band itself; a song or two; etc. Of the 45 minute show, I would guess that half of this time was spent watching this footage. I found the dialogue and lyrics extremely hard to follow, with the voices mixed badly with background noise/instruments. Perhaps this was where most of the jokes were, but if so, I couldn’t hear them or understand them.

There was simply too much reliance on this footage. My understanding is that in the middle of rehearsals for the show, one of the cast members pulled out due to travel plans. This caused the cast to pre-record most of the show in order to cover for the fact that they were one person down during the performance itself. But actually, they could have quite easily done more live scenes, hiding the fact that the band consisted of three members and not four, without detracting too much from their initial ideas.

Bryan had some great improvisation work with the audience, in an effort to break the ‘fourth wall’ – my favourite was when his character was looking for inspiration for some song lyrics, and said to a man in the audience, “Not you, you’re too ugly!”

Jarrod Fairclough, playing Mike and Ricky (also the director), had the great beginnings of an inept Casanova as Mike, and if encouraged could be the makings of a really pitiful character (this is a good thing!).

Matt Collins, who played Freeze, was the MIA cast member, so he was obviously under-utilised and I would have liked to have seen more of his ‘cool’ character. Josh Schreuder, playing Jay, was similarly under-utilised. I had hoped to write a little more about both Collins and Schreuder – and Fairclough – but to be honest, by the time I got home, I couldn’t remember much about their performances. They were on stage for such a short amount of time compared to Bryan, that it is almost unfair to the rest of the cast.

Because the show centred around Stew, I felt that Bryan was carrying much of the acting by himself, and it would have been great to see more live scenes between himself and the rest of the band. The conflict and tension that was supposed to be visible throughout the show was weak, because we never really got to see the whole band together – nor any of the infighting that was supposed to be present, nor explore the characters that would have been so typical of a boy band. The performance would have benefited from live performed songs – a la Lano and Woodley, Tripod, etc – and more live scenes exploring the conflict between the band members.

Having said all this, I am also tempering it with the thought that these kids are just that – kids. Yes, I’ve made a lot of criticisms towards their production, but in fact these are all issues that most of us learn over time, through increasing our skills and production experience. The cast simply need more of it.

And with a limited budget, self-direction, and organizing a show outside of any school authority or supervision, the young group have certainly pulled off a big feat. The cast and crew seemed to be so organised, I was tempted to jealousy – they had laminated (!) programs, printed tickets, friends for FOH/ushers. The stage manager in me was impressed – I’ve tech’d festivals were the incoming show was so disorganised, they didn’t even have a prompt copy for me when it came to tech run. Lazy Creations Group seemed to have it all together. Technical Director, Callum Delaney, deserves a big hand for managing to work with a lighting system that was minimal by any standards, as well as tricky operation of sound and video media.

While the script needs work, the gems of jokes showed a witty understanding of their subject matter, and a good basis for a fun and complex show if drafted further. And I greatly believe that with some really heavy rehearsal the characters could be fully drawn out and explored.

I really do hope Lazy Creations Group continues to produce theatre. There were moments in the performance where I laughed out loud – a rarity for me, who never even laughs out loud at some of the big name comedians. With time and effort, the cast could tighten up their acting and writing, and produce something absolutely hilarious. I could see this performance being presented at La Mama, or during a festival, where it could benefit from a smaller venue and a warmer audience.

More info about Boy Banned and the Lazy Creations Group can be found here.